Apple apologized for the scandalous commercial for the new iPad Pro tablet (3 photos + 2 videos)

16 May 2024

Apple has apologized for its "Crush!" commercial, which sparked backlash from artists, musicians and other creatives. The company said the video "didn't hit the mark" and scrapped plans to run the ad on TV.

As part of its advertising campaign, Apple released a new iPad Pro commercial called Crush, but the ad received such criticism after its airing that it forced Apple to apologize and refuse to air it on television.

The minute-long video shows how a piano, guitar, TV, paint cans, toys and other things are crushed by a huge press, in the end turning all these things into an iPad Pro tablet.

Clearly, Apple wanted the ad to serve as a metaphor for all the many creative tools a person gets when they shell out $1,000 or more for a new iPad Pro.

Thor Mühren, Apple's vice president of marketing communications, said:

Creativity is in Apple's DNA, and it's critical to us to develop products that inspire creativity around the world. Our goal is to encourage users to express themselves and bring their ideas to life using iPad. However, this video does not accurately convey this concept. We regret that the advertisement will not be shown on television as planned.

, he added.

Ten years ago, this advertising probably would not have become a big problem, writes the portal Shazoo.ru.

LG made literally the same ad back in 2008, and they could have been inspired by someone who came before.

But Apple marketers completely failed to take into account the context of the moment. The ad comes weeks before Apple takes the stage at WWDC to announce generative AI features that have investors salivating.

“Generative AI, as you may have heard, needs something to learn from, and that means human work. It learns from existing content to create algorithmically generated words, pictures, music, voices, models, and more. It also has the potential to put those same content creators out of work, most of whom don't have cushy jobs at Apple or other Big Five companies, as corporations and consumers eagerly await the robots that will send creators into the workforce.

Context is everything, and Apple clearly didn't take it into account. Her ad serves as a perfect metaphor for generative AI's potential to destroy human creativity, turning us all into "on-demand artists" typing words into text boxes to replace years of training and experience. That's not to say that generative AI doesn't have great applications, but potentially replacing human creativity is one of the most notable applications.