https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/05/a-crushing-backlash-to-apples-new-ipad-ad/
Hydraulic press destroying "symbols of creativity" has folks hopping mad.
Hey Apple, I have this great idea for a next spot where we burn a pile of books. Call me.
They could have made a more caring ad....
An old guitarr being played and recorded, the microphone is connected to a bright white cable going off screen.
An old camera lens mounted on a new camera body taking pictures of different subjects, a bright white cable is connected to the camera and goes off screen.
A few old tubes of paint are squeezed out onto a class painter's palette, a bright white cable goes from the palette off screen.
An old arcade cabinett being played and enjoyed, the camera zooms out through the arcade and a bright white cable from the cabinett goes offscreen.
An old typewriter being typed on, with a bright white cable going from it offscreen.
An old cash register in an old general store, bright white cable goes from the register off screen.
An old film projector playing in an old cinema, bright white cable goes from the projector off screen.
A DJ playing an analog turntable, bright white cable goes from the turntable off screen.
A nurse in a retirenment home reads a binder of medical data, bright white cable from the binder goes off screen
It keeps going like that, and at the end you see all the white cables connected to a hydraulic press that starts opening, revealing the iPad Pro, showing scenes from every clip we saw before.
I am an IT technician and have been for the last decade and a half, I have no real desire to switch fields, though I would not decline a fat creative consultant check from Apple if they use my idea...
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Hey Apple, Great ad. It perfectly encapsulates what an iPad is...a shit product juiced from the tears of real creativity - A soul crushing, art destroying block of useless shit forged from real tools.
What I hate about it is it's a replacement of something better which could exist in the same role of a mobile computer for normies (like Star Wars datapads?), but, well, bigger and more convenient to actually work than a phone role PDA.
I'd want a device with a color e-Ink display (non-touchscreen or at least not requiring using the touchscreen), with repurposeable physical buttons around (small screens showing different pictures depending on what the button must be used for? or maybe Sony-style abstract emblems used differently by different applications), and those should have sufficiently deep travel, one that can survive a 1 meter fall, with a few interfaces normal for laptops (a few USB ports, HDMI, Ethernet, 3.5 jack, microSD would be good), an LTE modem, an SSD or NVME inside, and a good battery.
I'm fine with it being kinda fat. Some rubber parts to protect against falls may mask it for those who think that's against aesthetics.
And it should run Linux.
Guess Apple is not the company to address with such wishes, but the funny part is that in general iPad is kinda in the same niche as what I'm describing. Just much less useful.
I got a PineTab2 for under $200 that has treated me well. No e-ink or symbolic buttons, but it runs Linux and the included cover has a keyboard.
I usually use it as a dummy terminal with a Bluetooth mechanical keyboard.
This is manufactured outrage to make apple seem edgy.
I wouldn't give a ratass about this if people didn't make articles about it
This is plenty valid to be upset at - especially when contrasted with all of the current stories about platforms removing access to "owned" digital media.
They want to crush, destroy, eliminate all of your physical media and creative outlets, shift you to fully digital, and then hold the kill switch hostage behind an always shifting subscription.
Some people care too much about an ad. I guess some people can't live without at least a single controversy per day.
You could probably take any ad and argue why it's offensive to some people in some way.
Tbf, I don't think you looked at this with much depth. No decisions in the corporate world, at this scale, are done fast and in a vacuum.
This is plenty valid to be upset at - especially when contrasted with all of the current stories about platforms removing access to "owned" digital media.
They want to crush, destroy, eliminate all of your physical media and creative outlets, shift you to fully digital, and then hold the kill switch hostage behind an always shifting subscription.
I get that this ad implies the (new) iPad can replace all the other stuff that got crushed, I just don't get how this can be so upsetting to people: it's an ad for a product. Don't like it, don't buy it. Apple is hardly going to destroy the market for all the stuff that got crushed.
I can disagree with something and still not be offended or upset by it. As I said, sometimes I feel like some people want to be offended/upset.
It's not about selling a single product, it's about a general campaign to make people devalue traditional physical media in favor of purchased/streaming digital, again a system that they hold the keys to and the profit lever. How do you think something like that is done if it's done? With the single, obvious flip of a single switch and it's done, or a slow drip over time, subtle and from multiple angles.
You need to see the nuance, again, nothing is done at this level without careful consideration. It may not be their first priority, but at the very least it was "nice to have" messaging in the background.
Backlash doesn't always mean people are offended/upset. I think most people just recognize this as an ad done in bad taste or even just out of touch.
Bad company makes bad ad, people say it's bad. Sure, kinda pointless to talk about, but it's just another reason not to buy it and tell others not to buy into their anti consumer crap.
Idk. I guess I'm not offended, the ad just made me sad haha. I definitely understand that some creative professionals would be offended by the implication that a goddamn iPad could somehow replace a trumpet or a piano or literally any of those things shown in the ad. It's definitely lacking taste.
I'm really close to getting a new iPad but this ad actually made me want it a lot less. It made me consider whether I actually need another piece of tech in my life. Thanks Apple for saving me a thousand bucks haha
It perfectly symbolizes the relentless pressure of the boot of the tech bros on the workers in the industries they disrupt.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
An advert by Apple for its new iPad tablet showing musical instruments, artistic tools, and games being crushed by a giant hydraulic press has been attacked for cultural insensitivity in an online backlash.
Advertising industry executives argued the ad represented a mis-step for the Silicon Valley giant, which under late co-founder Steve Jobs was lauded for its ability to capture consumer attention through past campaigns.
Christopher Slevin, creative director for marketing agency Inkling Culture, compared the iPad ad unfavorably to a famous Apple campaign directed by Ridley Scott called “1984” for the original Macintosh computer, which positioned Apple as liberating a dystopian, monochrome world.
Actor Hugh Grant accused Apple of “the destruction of the human experience courtesy of Silicon Valley” on X.
However, Richard Exon, founder of marketing agency Joint, said: “A more important question is: does the ad do its job?
Nataly Kelly, chief marketing officer at Zappi, said: “Is the Apple iPad ad a work of genius or the sign of the dystopian times?
The original article contains 456 words, the summary contains 166 words. Saved 64%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Y'all just looking to be mad at apple. I can't believe this is going to generate clicks 🙄.
This ad is literally the perfect opposite of their famous Think different ad:
We have an actual gigantic, unfeeling machine, literally crushing an effigy of the sum total of human creativity, only to proudly declare that everyone now needs to do all those things in the same, apple-approved way.
And the real irony is that's the actual message they're trying to get across.
Are you talking about the 1984 ad? It’s funny cuz that wasn’t even made for the Apple computer. It was a generic ad sold to Apple.
Yes, much more feeling machines on the Linux side of things 🙄
Oh God they can generate instrument noises and make movies and shit, look at the creativity being crushed!
"Oh no they crushed a bunch of random things and it represents the descturction of culture" What a joke