Apple‘s new iPad Pro advert, which sees a selection of vintage instruments being destroyed, has caused controversy among music fans.
The advert was shared by company CEO Tim Cook and features vintage, guitars, pianos, trumpets, and metronomes, as well as turntables, speakers, and arcade games being crushed to a soundtrack of Sonny and Cher‘s ‘All I Need Is You’.
Fans have flocked to social media to share their outrage at the advert. “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,” one wrote.
Check out the advert – and the displeased response to it – below.
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
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. https://t.co/NLbiCG4MXh
— Chris Schilling (@schillingc) May 8, 2024
“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,” reads another comment. “I’d expect this from an AI company not Apple.”
Another X/Twitter user said: “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.”
Meanwhile, someone else wrote: “For years on here I’ve been talking about how the fortunes of tech companies are built on destroying artists, and now @apple has an ad celebrating it.”
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.pic.twitter.com/u0Ja8EKJJS
— Dare Obasanjo🐀 (@Carnage4Life) May 8, 2024
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 https://t.co/zDnvZ8GPYI
— Brian Merchant (@bcmerchant) May 8, 2024
For years on here I’ve been talking about how the fortunes of tech companies are built on destroying artists, and now @apple has an ad celebrating it. https://t.co/LyRvbKz034
— MZS (@mattzollerseitz) May 8, 2024
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 https://t.co/WkyAdubx2m pic.twitter.com/p0yqQ8ZGYL
— James Clark 📈📉¯_(ツ)_/¯ (@mr_james_c) May 8, 2024
This Apple ad is what happens when you try to be “edgy” with no consideration for strategy.
Consider first principles:
1) Apple is a brand built on giving people a sense of inspiration and joy (eg, the colorful 2000s iPod ads)
2) Their target audience is consumers who are… https://t.co/nS9EuXTghK
— Lulu Cheng Meservey (@lulumeservey) May 8, 2024
Apple ads always speak of the current mindset in S.Valley. They communicate with greater reach than most art today. Consider the cultural impact of the groundbreaking Apple ad based on 1984.
1984 ad – free speech & liberty through tech
2024 ad – scrape culture, destroy the past pic.twitter.com/GOKzAYmNWj
— Ewan Morrison (@MrEwanMorrison) May 8, 2024
Wow, no one at Apple had any idea how depressing this ad is? https://t.co/xESVQJ7kJX
— Laurie Kilmartin (@anylaurie16) May 8, 2024
I find this new Apple ad extremely ugly and dystopian
There is no recognition of how artists love the tools of their trade
The message seems to be that everything beautiful and analog that involves practice and focus is pointless trash, easily replaced by a disposable computer https://t.co/zH7sBwszK3
— Patrick Boyle 💎 (@PatrickEBoyle) May 8, 2024
This new ad by Apple perfectly depicts what Big Tech has sadly come to stand for: crushing human creativity in the name of technological innovation and selling it to us as progress.
It‘s tone-deaf at least, malicious at worst, in the current climate of Ai replacing human arts. https://t.co/xt5M6KAQDQ
— Jonas Jödicke (@JoJoesArt) May 8, 2024
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 https://t.co/n0H1ZZdLkB
— H.K (@HKesvani) May 8, 2024
The comments on this are ☠️
Apple has gone full 180 and become the faceless culture crashing force they rallied against in 1984… the only way to save this ad is for them to play it in reverse and celebrate the cultural opportunities bursting out not being crushed 🤷♂️ https://t.co/6vZ1Mkkbke
— Jerry Daykin (@jdaykin) May 8, 2024
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. https://t.co/Gfxqfe5aCN
— Meredith Whittaker (@mer__edith) May 8, 2024
Meanwhile, in January, the tech giant confirmed it will pay artists higher royalties for music made available in spatial audio.
Starting in January, artists can receive a 10 per cent higher royalty rate for spatial audio music. ‘Spatial audio’ is essentially defined as virtual surround sound, and was made available in June 2021 at no additional cost.
It follows a Bloomberg Report in December that the company were planning to “give added weighting to streams of songs” mixed in Dolby Atmos (spatial audio is created through technology from Dolby Atmos). Listeners will not have to listen to the spatial audio tracks in order for artists to receive the increased royalties.
Apple Music said the higher royalties are “not only meant to reward higher quality content, but also to ensure that artists are being compensated for the time and investment they put into mixing in Spatial.”
English (US) · 