Tim Cook shares iPad Pro ad, gets ratio’d hard

‘Crush!,’ a rather entertaining ad for Apple’s new M4 iPad Pro and M2 iPad Air, features several objects, including a trumpet, a guitar, an arcade cabinet, a piano and more, being crushed as a metaphor for what the tech giant’s new tablets are capable of.

Rather than watching this entertaining ad and thinking, “Wow, so that’s what an emoji would look like if it were crushed,” because this is the internet, there’s widespread outrage, with many passionately posting statements like, “Steve Jobs would never have approved this.”

https://youtu.be/ntjkwIXWtrc?si=o1-f4GK_TmNZqDsv

Indeed, if you take social media posts as face value, Crush! might be Apple’s most controversial ad yet.

Check out a selection of angry social posts below:

The destruction of the human experience. Courtesy of Silicon Valley. https://t.co/273XB3CfnF

— Hugh Grant (@HackedOffHugh) May 8, 2024

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

made this edited version in five minutes (thanks iMovie!) pic.twitter.com/TZxzpuYzXu

— kepano (@kepano) May 8, 2024

Everything beautiful, charming, and analog will be destroyed by a flat black screen

You must never see a sculpted bust

Never hear music from an actual instrument

Never feel the texture of real things

A silicon slab (and Tim Cook) will permanently stand between u and the world

— Jash Dholani (@oldbooksguy) May 8, 2024

I'm a creator, a traditional artist, a macintosh user of many years, yet I never even understand why would I need an iPad, and this destruction is extremely distasteful and would never convince me but otherwise.

— Michael Vokabre (@Vokabre) May 7, 2024

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.

Promise to prevent my kids to watch this video.

— Mizuto Kato (@miz0521) May 7, 2024

The destruction of the human experience. Courtesy of Silicon Valley. https://t.co/273XB3CfnF

— Hugh Grant (@HackedOffHugh) May 8, 2024

I’m rarely baffled by the public response to anything, but this is an exception to that rule. I get it: real instruments, physical books, camera lenses and more are great. There’s a concrete sense of tangibility that a device like the iPad can’t replicate, regardless of how powerful, thin or capable it is. And in the age of AI where executives across various industries feel art created by human beings is no longer important, I can see why this ad may have triggered a negative response from many.

But isn’t this also Steve Jobs’ original pitch for the iPhone: a device that’s an iPod, a mobile phone and an internet browser. This ad is just a clever extension of that concept presented in a different, more engaging way.

Plus, watching things get crushed is entertaining. There are more important things in the world to get mad about than a clever advertisement from the world’s most valuable company.

Update 09/05/2024 5:36pm ET: Apple has apologized for releasing ‘Crushed!,’ stating it believes it “missed the mark.”

Source: Apple