The ad for Apple’s new iPad has gone viral but for all the wrong reasons.
Apple CEO Tim Cook shared the spot Wednesday on X, formerly Twitter.
Cook boasted about the new tablet being “the thinnest product we’ve ever created” with the “most advanced display” and having the “incredible power of the M4 chip.”
“Just imagine all the things it’ll be used to create,” Cook hyped the tablet.
Watch the video here:
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
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) May 7, 2024
However, the spot was more about ... well ... the destruction of much of what creatives hold dear. It shows instruments, sculptures, paint pots, vinyl records, books and more being crushed in a gigantic hydraulic press which then opens back up to reveal the product.
“The most powerful iPad ever, is also the thinnest,” says the narrator.
While the ad was most likely trying to say the iPad packs all that wonderful creativity, many critics suggested the symbolism totally missed the mark.
One X user suggested it should be shown in reverse:
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
— kepano (@kepano) May 8, 2024
made this edited version in five minutes (thanks iMovie!) pic.twitter.com/TZxzpuYzXu
Movie star Hugh Grant had this to say:
The destruction of the human experience. Courtesy of Silicon Valley. https://t.co/273XB3CfnF
— Hugh Grant (@HackedOffHugh) May 8, 2024
Others called it the “worst. commercial. ever.” and an “unintentionally perfect metaphor for how we are destroying beauty for profit.”
Here’s a sample of some of the many, many, other comments:
unintentionally perfect metaphor for how we are destroying beauty for profit
— David Goldfarb (@locust9) May 8, 2024
Bravo https://t.co/vxLquRFkwU
The symbolism of indiscriminately crushing beautiful creative tools is an interesting choice.
— Kiaran Ritchie (@kiaran_ritchie) May 7, 2024
Forty years ago, Apple released the 1984 commercial as a bold statement against a dystopian future. Now you are that dystopian future. Congratulations.
— Yuval Kordov (@YuvalKordov) May 8, 2024
Ah, Apple providing the perfect metaphor for what’s happening to the creative arts & humanities, and then mistakenly thinking it’s a good look for an advert https://t.co/BiXWErJGSF
— Greg Jenner (@greg_jenner) May 8, 2024
Jobs would never have approved this. It conveys contempt for tools and the arts. Don't doubt it's unintentional but it's in bad taste.
— Macroblock (@sainimatic) May 7, 2024
Who approve this creative? Who create this? Everyone in the studio was excited to see everything destroyed?
— Mizuto Kato (@miz0521) May 7, 2024
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.
Everything beautiful, charming, and analog will be destroyed by a flat black screen
— Jash Dholani (@oldbooksguy) May 8, 2024
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
You destroyed all the creative tools and effort of humans. Worst. Commercial. Ever.
— 左の街からこんにちは (@Hidarino_Machi) May 8, 2024
I just don't get it. A video about crushing beautifully crafted instruments beloved by creators?????
— MRO💥 (@officalmro) May 7, 2024
It is a heartbreaking, uncomfortable, and egotistic advertisement. When I see this result, I'm ashamed to buy Apple products since nineteen years.
— Hiroki Akiyama (@akiroom) May 7, 2024
I love playing musical instruments. Give me a piano or a guitar, and I can spend hours practicing or creating music.
— 滝田信二 ご相談はチャットから (@takida_shinji) May 7, 2024
With paper and pencils, I can draw endlessly.
I used to feel the same about the iPad, but now I realize I was mistaken.
Crushing symbols of human creativity and cultural achievements to appeal to pro creators, nice.
— Sterling Crispin 🕊️ (@sterlingcrispin) May 7, 2024
Maybe for the next Apple Watch Pro you should crush sports equipment, show a robot running faster than a man, then turn to the camera and say, "God is dead and we have killed him"
I’m not sure ‘wanton destruction of all the good and beautiful things is this world’ was really the vibe you were trying for.
— Judd Baroff (@JuddBaroff) May 7, 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
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