Apple faces backlash for crushing books and instruments in its latest ad
Despite Apple's reputation for smart marketing, netizens slammed the ad campaign, labelling it as 'destructive' and crushing symbols of human creativity and cultural achievements just to attract pro creators.
Apple, known for its innovative marketing, made a literal impact with its latest ad. To promote its new ultra-thin iPads, the tech giant released an advertisement that features an industrial press crushing a variety of creative objects, leading to the reveal of a new iPad.
The latest iPad Pro ad shows a series of artistic items, including books, paint cans, statues, musical instruments, a piano, an old TV, and an arcade game machine, being smashed to pieces to the cheerful tune of Sonny & Cher’s 'All I Ever Need Is You.'
"Just imagine all the things it’ll be used to create," Apple CEO Tim Cook wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday, sharing the video of the advertisement.
Meet the new iPad Pro: the thinnest product we’ve ever created, the most advanced display we’ve ever produced, with the incredible power of the M4 chip. Just imagine all the things it’ll be used to create. pic.twitter.com/6PeGXNoKgG
The brand's message through this ad was simple and clear - it aimed to replace multiple objects with a single iPad to complete tasks. Even though this approach has proven successful for Apple's advertisers in the past, the aggressive imagery has questioned its message.
Cook's post on X garnered 19.3 million views and was fueled by replies and reposts with commentary from netizens, with some suggesting that Apple should remove the ad and re-edit it.
Many on social media labelled it as 'destructive' and argued that it was 'crushing symbols of human creativity and cultural achievements just to attract pro creators.'
One user commented, "It is a heartbreaking, uncomfortable, and egotistic advertisement. When I see this result, I'm ashamed to buy Apple products since nineteen years."
Another user wrote, "Who approve this creative? Who create this? Everyone in the studio was excited to see everything destroyed? Definitely this is the good case study the world big tech company lost brand equity instantly."
Adam Singer, VP of Marketing at AdQuick, posted his thoughts commenting, "This ad is (unintentional) perfect metaphor for today’s creative dark age: compress organic instruments, joyful/imperfect machines, tangible art, our entire physical reality into a soulless, postmodern, read-only device a multi-trillion $ corporation controls what you do with."
On the other hand, one user on X suggested the advertisement would have worked better if the messaging was reversed.
I think the ad would work much better if it was reversed. All the objects should be expanding out of the iPad rather than being crushed into it
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