Apple's iPad Pro ad “Crush”, which shows paints, toys, guitars, sculptures, and more being crushed to reveal the thin device, draws criticism on social media

AppleInsider 2024-05-09 William Gallagher

Context & Ripple Effects

The backlash lands alongside Apple's 2024 iPad Pro launch, which emphasized a 5.1mm 13-inch model and M4-based hardware in Apple's new iPad Pro lineup. The campaign turns that thinness claim into its central visual metaphor.

That emphasis is notable because subsequent coverage praised the hardware but said iPadOS still trails the device's capabilities. The ad dispute therefore risks shifting attention from the product's creative-use positioning to the imagery used to sell it.

First-order effects

Apple faces immediate social-media criticism over an iPad Pro campaign intended to communicate the device's thin design.
The ad's destruction of creative objects can undercut its appeal to the artists and creators whose tools and output are depicted.

Second-order effects

Apple's launch messaging may need to lean more heavily on the iPad Pro's display, performance, and workflow benefits rather than a single attention-grabbing thinness visual.
The episode raises the reputational cost for device marketers that use replacement-by-technology imagery when addressing creative communities.

Third-order effects

If this response is sustained, premium-device advertising will face a stronger expectation to present technology as augmenting creative practice rather than displacing physical tools.
The broader product challenge remains aligning increasingly capable hardware with credible creator workflows—an issue made sharper when software perception lags hardware ambition.

The trend: Premium hardware launches are increasingly judged not only on specifications and industrial design, but on whether their marketing respects the communities the products are meant to serve.

Discussion

@craigmod Craig Mod on threads
this ipad is so thin that we had to sacrifice everything you love and destroy all the romance of the world to make it so — enjoy!
@anildash Anil Dash on threads
It's interesting what a misfire this was. Literally the same concept with (e.g.) a magnet pulling in all those things towards an iPad instead of crushing them would have won people over. Apple having folks who don't realize how much people love their musical instruments and the…
@tomwarrenuk Tom Warren on threads
I liked it. I think it's less about destroying creative tools and more the idea of how we've used all these tools for years and now they're available through software on a tiny device
@joelt999 Joel Teitelbaum on threads
Please name a single thing that Apple has ever done in recent years that did not draw criticism on social media
@gwhitta Gary Whitta on threads
I'm stunned that Apple, a company that caters heavily to artists and creators and also known for the quality of its advertising over the years, thought this was a good idea. Absolutely tone-deaf.
@virtualbri@mastodon.online Brian Tatosky on mastodon
https://www.youtube.com/... I don't...just no Apple. This is not the iPad take you want to be known for. — Destroying all these mostly tactile experiences for a tiny screen? — I love my iPad, but no.... #Apple #IPad #Advertisements
@yiningkarlli@mastodon.gamedev.place Yining Karl Li on mastodon
Normally Apple is really good at ads, but this ad for the iPad Pro is a huge failure. I sincerely hope it was CG and that they didn't actually destroy all of those instruments of human creativity. This ad should have been all of that amazing stuff exploding out of the iPad, not…
@Richard_Littler@mastodon.social Richard Littler on mastodon
One of the most depressing ads I've seen, and yet it perfectly captures the presumptuousness and obliviousness of 21st C ‘tech bro’ culture, which seems hellbent on running roughshod over, well, any kind of creativity that it can't exploit financially. https://twitter.com/... #a…
@hackedoffhugh Hugh Grant on x
The destruction of the human experience. Courtesy of Silicon Valley.
@rezawrecktion Reza Sixo Safai on x
Hey @Apple, I fixed it for you (sound on) [video]
@sdw Sebastiaan de With on x
I found it interesting to read the Japanese backlash responses to this, some particularly disturbed because of a belief in “Tsukumogami” — the idea that creative tools can possess a spirit of their own (a beautiful notion), so destroying them is truly evil. ... not a great look
@michaelmiraflor Michael J. Miraflor on x
I don't think I've ever seen a single commercial offend and turn off a core customer base as much as this iPad spot. Achieves the opposite of their legendary 1984 spot. It's not even that it's boring or banal. It makes me feel... bad? Bummed out?
@mr_james_c @mr_james_c on x
Apple's new “Crush” ad (let's call it “2024") is a visual & metaphorical bookend to the 1984 ad. 1984: Monochome, conformist, industrial world exploded by colourful, vibrant human 2024: Colourful, vibrant humanity is crushed by monochrome, conformist industrial press [image]
@justinebateman Justine Bateman on x
Truly, what is wrong with you?
@alexroy144 Alex Roy on x
Apple should fire this agency Then fire everyone at Apple who failed to recognize the anti-Apple message at this ad's core Then the agency should fire everyone involved with this ad who didn't voice reservations before showing it to Apple 1/x
@asifkapadia @asifkapadia on x
Like iPads but don't know why anyone thought this ad was a good idea It is the most honest metaphor for what tech companies do to the arts, to artists musicians, creators, writers, filmmakers: squeeze them, use them, not pay well, take everything then say it's all created by them
@adamsinger Adam Singer on x
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
@jamesrbuk James Ball on x
The key thing to know with any major advert is how many people at how many levels of seniority watched it before you, the punter, saw it. All of them saw it and either didn't see the glaring problem, or felt like they had to pretend not to see it.
@reedmorano @reedmorano on x
Hey @tim_cook READ THE ROOM, BRO. CUZ THIS SHIT IS ACTUALLY PSYCHOTIC
@kepano @kepano on x
@tim_cook 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!) [video]
@justinebateman Justine Bateman on x
.@tim_cook, someone corrected your “ad.”
@stevesi Steven Sinofsky on x
I wonder if Apple would have “crushed” all these devices in their iPhone introduction would some people have been critical of that? [Image collage: iPod, Nokia 95, RAZR flip hone, Game Boy, etc;]
@counternotions Kontra on x
re: Apple's iPad compression ad THEN: Their marketing is too mainstream, Apple should get edgy NOW: Not like that though
@timsweeneyepic Tim Sweeney on x
If you loved Apple's creative tools video, wait'll you see their developer video!
@ed_solomon Ed Solomon on x
“Who needs human life and everything that makes it worth living? Dive into this digital simulacrum and give us your soul. Sincerely, Apple.”
@angelicaoung Angelica on x
Everybody hated That Apple Ad but the Japanese REALLY hated it. I've never seen so many upset Japanese ppl commenting on a single thread: [image]
@neilcybart Neil Cybart on x
Few additional thoughts about the new iPad ad... Add the total cost of the objects found in the image below: $50,000? Most are available in one form or another on a <$1,000 iPad. This is part of the democratization of creative tools that has transformed society for the better..…
@zemotion Jingna Zhang on x
@Shadow_DW2 There are ways of showing consolidation without the destruction of things that people cherish, respect, and honor.
@cheo_coker Cheo Hodari Coker on x
That Apple ad....is a problem. Not in hip-hop “bad meaning good” problem. But a problem problem.
@dream_arkanum @dream_arkanum on x
@zemotion Wow this is one of the most tone deaf ads I've ever seen. “Let's destroy and decimate absolutely everything that makes us human in the name of technology!” surely it'll work just fine.
@dhh @dhh on x
“The real story is just how little saved up goodwill Apple had in the bank to compensate for the outrage. They've lost the presumption of good faith over the last 5 years with an ever-larger group of people, and now we've reached a tipping point.” https://world.hey.com/...
@mikeisaac Rat King on x
idk who is on retainer doing apple ads these days but this feels like a big miss in a way i havent seen in forever didnt bother me since most ads occupy a space that exists between white noise and chum in my brain but a large # of people really pay attn to everything apple
@jamesrbuk James Ball on x
“Your new product that you're selling on being slightly thinner and slightly faster is crushing every nostalgic thing we love? That's great! This definitely doesn't remind us of everything we feel uneasy about when it comes to Apple, for vague benefits,” said no-one, apparently.
@fchollet François Chollet on x
Besides the dystopian symbolism of literally crushing creative tools under an industrial press to produce a uniformized, sanitized “product”, it feels really uncomfortable to watch perfectly good instruments getting destroyed. Hopefully that was all CG.
@pmddomingos Pedro Domingos on x
Next Apple ad: how the Vision Pro will completely obliterate reality.
@maxwinebach Max Weinbach on x
I've seen a lot of people commenting on this ad and explaining why they don't like it But i don't get it. I get why people aren't a fan of it, but none of that hits with me. I think it's creative and sorta cool to watch.
@oliversegovia Oliver Segovia on x
What an amazing counter-positioning ad opportunity for @Meta. Scene: Hundreds of those iPads assembled as a big screen a-la 1984. A llama heads into it head on. Screens break and crumble. Every colourful object destroyed in the Apple ad comes flooding back into the world
@micsolana Mike Solana on x
“how could APPLE, of ALL COMPANIES, have misfired SO BADLY with their marketing?” apple's marketing: [Links to Cook's Sept. 13 tweet with a Mother Nature ad]
@emollick Ethan Mollick on x
I showed Google Gemini 1.5 the first part of Apple's “hydraulic press” ad for iPad. I think it kind of nailed it: “The ad could be seen as sending a mixed message or even a negative one, suggesting that the new iPad might lead to the destruction of other valuable things.” [image]
@benmullin Ben Mullin on x
The symmetry with Apple's 1984 ad is remarkable. In “1984,” a dissident throws a hammer through a TV screen, symbolizing humanity's power to conquer technology. In this ad, a hydraulic press crushes beloved cultural artifacts, symbolizing technology's power to conquer humanity.
@markgurman Mark Gurman on x
There is no way one can think the new iPad Pro ad is bad after seeing the first post-Steve Jobs Mac ads. https://www.youtube.com/...
@neilcybart Neil Cybart on x
Pushback against this ad has similar vibes to the “save movie theaters” movement. Moral outrage of seeing physical tools turned into digital tools is nostalgia-driven. Bottle that fury and unleash it on companies looking to use AI to replace artists altogether.
@thestalwart Joe Weisenthal on x
“We really need to do something about the environment” *Apple shows how computers will mean fewer manufactured goods* “Nooo, not like that!”
@antoniogm Antonio García Martínez on x
Facebook once created an ad showing people in social settings ignoring the people around them to have artificially good times through what friends were doing in Feed. Employees hated it and it was quashed. Companies occasionally reveal their corporate ids without realizing.
@fchollet François Chollet on x
Now I want to see the same ad in reverse — Apple heroically saving colorful symbols of creativity from getting crushed under the emotionless, grey industrial press of uniformity and barrenness. Would be so much better. This is one of the worst ads I've ever seen.
@alexludoboyd Alexander Boyd on x
Someone in China reversed Apple's awful new iPad Pro ad — and made something surprisingly beautiful [video]
@lmatsakis Louise Matsakis on x
Someone in China just reversed the footage of Apple's horrible iPad ad, and now the sentiment is beautiful lol
@mgsiegler M.G. Siegler on x
Personally, I think the only thing wrong with the new Apple iPad ad is that it's not set to “Hurt” by Nine Inch Nails.
@jamiesont Tom Jamieson on x
Who signed off on the most gruesomely arrogant, horribly upsetting, shittiest ad in history? Wow!
@zemotion Jingna Zhang on x
So painful to watch, especially given the current climate of artists being crushed by the unrelenting decimation of the arts by generative AI.
@loudmouthjulia Julia Alexander on x
What makes the Apple ad so jarring to me is Apple prides itself on its commitment to artistry. It has since itunes took on piracy, in its TV+ projects, in its partnerships (U2!). This? Blatantly anti-artist in its visuals. It's the anti-Apple thesis. It's the anti-Apple ad. Odd!
@mer__edith Meredith Whittaker on x
It's notable that even Apple, a paragon of brand creation and maintenance, is so out of touch with this moment. It's not 2015. People want human art and no one trusts big tech.
@jacquesgreene @jacquesgreene on x
one of the most depressing ads I've ever seen
@reedalbergotti Reed Albergotti on x
The latest Apple ad fail (a hydraulic press smashing beloved cultural artifacts and suggesting they can somehow be substituted with a tablet) is the second example in a year of a company appearing to fall out of touch with its customers. The other one that comes to mind is...
@ositanwanevu Osita Nwanevu on x
The very existence of this ad—all the hoops it had to go through in its creation before getting to the point where it was personally promoted by this CEO, all the people who thought ‘yes, this is good’—says more than thousands of words could about how tech sees the world.
@melmitchell1 Melanie Mitchell on x
Apple: “let's literally crush all that is wonderful about human artistic creation.”
@bcmerchant Brian Merchant on x
What an incredible self own by Apple, lol—at a time when artists, musicians and creatives are more worried than ever that tech companies are trying to crush them into dust for profit, along comes Apple and makes an *ad* whose whole message is: yes that is exactly what we're doing
@bcmerchant Brian Merchant on x
What's truly wild is Apple was barely even registering in this most recent cultural backlash—the ire was directed towards OpenAI, Microsoft, etc. Apple literally said, hold on, we want a piece of that—what if we made the 1984 ad but just made *ourselves* the soul-sucking megacorp
@locust9 David Goldfarb on x
unintentionally perfect metaphor for how we are destroying beauty for profit Bravo
@teroterotero Tero Kuittinen on x
Apple screening an ad ritually destroying Angry Birds, the pinnacle of Finnish civilization... at least the Japanese people are rising up against this perverse arrogance
@teroterotero Tero Kuittinen on x
Cook is so thin-skinned he has already put together a team of creatives to draft a “heartfelt” apology that is going to be dramatically performative and aimed at the LinkedIn degenerates. It's going to be syrupy and robotic at the same time.
@matthewstoller Matt Stoller on x
The Boeing-ification of Apple continues.
@nick_kapur Nick Kapur on x
Seeing a horrific ad like this from Apple, I can't help thinking how we're destroying the humanities and arts at universities in order to force everyone into vocational majors like “marketing” where they'll learn to produce soulless crap like this. The replies are 100% negative.
@thestalwart Joe Weisenthal on x
Very cool! Great reminder that AI will be great for the climate, by obviating the need to use any actual physical things in the creative process.
@joecarlsonshow Joseph Carlson on x
A rare miss with Apples marketing. Nobody questioned whether crushing a bunch of loved instruments created a poor visual to sell your product?
@mikerugnetta Mike Rugnetta on x
This spot is so bad, one imagines a senior exec to which no one could say “no” burst into some meeting with the creative fully baked after having ‘seen something really cool on tiktok’.
@anylaurie16 Laurie Kilmartin on x
Wow, no one at Apple had any idea how depressing this ad is?
@lmlauramarsh Laura Marsh on x
There's a surprising if inadvertent honesty to this ad. Open contempt for human art, skill, flourishing https://twitter.com/...
@isaiah_bb Isi Baehr-Breen on x
The most brutal replies to this ad are all people like “I feel a deep sense of sadness watching these beautiful tools of creativity ruined. I must reflect on my love of your products. I apologize for my harsh words - I am Japanese.”
@robertwrighter Robert Wright on x
Great new marketing pitch from Silicon Valley: We're destroying everything you loved about the old world and in its place we'll bring you... well we're not sure what. But trust us: It will be great. (Have we ever let you down before?)
@bennjordan Benn Jordan on x
We take your ancestor's culture, your grandmother's hymns, your lifetime of practice and dedication to an instrument, your wedding playlist, songs you wrote at the lowest point in your life, your family photos, your kid's first artwork, and sell it back to you on a $1,500 wafer
@byronyork Byron York on x
This is a really horrible ad. Horrifying, actually.
@katiepavlich Katie Pavlich on x
What an awful ad
@patrickdeneen Patrick Deneen on x
Buy and keep real things. Books. Vinyl. Instruments. Art supplies. This destruction of actual things that you can own and keep, replaced by permanent renting of “virtual” content, is what they are aiming at.
@lulumeservey Lulu Cheng Meservey on x
This Apple ad is what happens when you try to be “edgy” with no consideration for strategy...Instead they created a vision of dystopia. The crushing of instruments is viscerally hard to watch and evokes the destruction of art during the Cultural Revolution...
@tomfgoodwin Tom Goodwin on x
If Samsung ever did this, people would destroy them. Crushing things we love , things we played with , to produce an identical black box. Showing expression, nostalgia , craft being destroyed at this pivotal moment in AI , couldn't be any more tone deaf
@morgothsreview @morgothsreview on x
This advert is horrific. You don't need anything physical, the little black mirror will make it all obsolete because it's all just useless clutter anyway. Life is to be lived and experienced only in Apple products, all else is junk.
@dark1x @dark1x on x
This is an unpleasant ad, I think - I get what they're going for but it ultimately feels as if they're destroying the history of creativity. A fitting presentation following yesterday's Xbox news, however. “Crush your dreams”
@bengeskin Ben Geskin on x
“The thinnest product we've ever created” 🤨 The new iPad Pro 13" is 5.1mm iPod shuffle 3rd gen is 4mm pic by @ChateauAerien [image]
@hkesvani @hkesvani on x
No better way to sum up Apple than it being a company relentlessly obsessed with destroying stuff that functions, can be repaired at home, and can be passed down to future generations, and replacing it with a fragile technology that will break the moment a raindrop hits it
@tomandlorenzo @tomandlorenzo on x
Just an astonishingly perfect representation of what the tech industry is doing and an illustration of the massive gap between how the purveyors see it and how horrifying everyone else finds it
@jysexton Jared Yates Sexton on x
Apple has unintentionally made one of the most fitting and revealing advertisements of the modern era. My god. This horror perfectly encapsulates the feeling of life as the powerful wreak escalatingly careless and clueless destruction.
@sarahkendzior Sarah Kendzior on x
I'm heartened by how many people in the replies hate this ad and value creativity and humanity
@danielpriestley Daniel Priestley on x
Steve Jobs had reverence for creatives and he understood symbolism. Here we see beautiful, classic objects being crushed to smithereens and being replaced with a digital device. It's uncomfortable to watch and it reminds me how powerless we are to stop digital tech taking over...
@byyourlogic @byyourlogic on x
this is such an arrogant ad considering this is a device exclusively for highly remedial old people and terribly behaved children. you made a $1,000 binkie, not faster-than-light space travel
@carnage4life Dare Obasanjo on x
This feels like the first ad that is a tone deaf miss from Apple. An ad showing beautiful tools of human creativity being crushed to be replaced by the newest and thinnest gadget feels antithetical to Apple. I'd expect this from an AI company not Apple. [video]
@jamesmelville James Melville on x
This is a horrendously bad advert for the new iPad Pro. It looks like they are advertising a dystopian tech-led takeover. Literally crushing the simple pleasures in life. [video]
@theadamsass Adam Sass on x
If my company was accused of being the alleged driver of modern Congolese enslavement where child laborers have been crushed in cobalt mine collapses, I wouldn't greenlight an ad where massive gears crush everything in their wake just to produce a teeny tiny bloop of an iPad.
@harikunzru Hari Kunzru on x
Crushing the symbols of human creativity to produce a homogenized branded slab is pretty much where the tech industry is at in 2024
@sarahbadr Sarah Badr on x
however unintentional, this really is a perfect encapsulation of the current moment in tech — an industry so high on its own fumes that it can no longer come up with reasons. “with our obscene and senseless hubris on full display, ‘just imagine’ the wanton flattening of culture.”
@dollydeighton Katie Deighton on x
This ad perfectly encapsulates the insight that people think technology is killing everything we ever found joy in. And then presents that as a good thing. I haven't seen such a visceral backlash to a spot in a long time.
@greg_jenner Greg Jenner on x
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
@postoctobrist @postoctobrist on x
people are very mad at this but ‘our company is an enormous machine that mercilessly destroys all forms of art’ is very honest
@david_rudnick @david_rudnick on x
god bless all the japanese people politely responding to this that it is sincerely distasteful to destroy so much meaningful cultural material to arrogantly triumphally aggrandize a product
@schillingc Chris Schilling on x
Can't recall the last time I saw a promo that so immediately and completely turned me against the product it was supposed to be selling. Catastrophically awful. Genuinely dystopian. Holy shit.
@alicelowe Alice Lowe on x
objects of personal connection, human interaction, identity, getting soul crushed here. read the room. who wants to identify with their laptop destroying culture or erasing humanity? after Zone Of Interest it's made me queasy. what do we leave behind? an After Eight laptop?
@swiftonsecurity @swiftonsecurity on x
I know outrage is ephemeral paint-by-numbers, but the thing about this ad is it individually mocks every creative discipline somehow. It's shockingly good at it. Thanks for crushing those beautiful camera lenses by the way. 👍
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Apple's ‘Crush’ iPad ad sparks backlash from creatives

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