Apple apologizes for iPad 'Crush' ad that 'missed the mark'

https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/9/24153113/apple-ipad-ad-crushing-apology

by linguae • 2 years ago

667 1462 2 years ago

theverge.com

asadm• 2 years ago

to me that ad screams “i will squish all your humanly creativity into this faceless slate”.

thsksbd5• 2 years ago

And so did everyone not totally immersed in tech.

swat535• 2 years ago

That's not the message I got at all, it was like how all of these can be accomplished by this single device.

I suppose it would have been cooler if it was the other way around: "iPad somehow expands outwards, filling the room with those things"

arvinsim• 2 years ago

It's not the message that offends people. It's how the message was delivered.

bmoxb• 2 years ago

It was clear to me that that's what they wanted to express but their chosen visuals didn't convey that well at all. Expanding outwards from the iPad would have made a lot more sense.

ThrowawayTestr6• 2 years ago

20 years ago people were amazed that your phone, mp3 player, calendar, email and 100 other things were all in one device. Now it's dystopian.

sneak5• 2 years ago

I think the #1 third party app is probably more responsible for this sentiment than the device itself.

People can’t emotionally separate their hatred and disgust at corporate social media taking over and censoring and monetizing the public square with the physical device that it leverages.

On one hand, we have Facebook and Instagram. On the other, every person interacting with a cop has a cloud-uploading HD camera at the ready.

For every Twitter, everyone can video call their parents/grandparents at any time for as long as they want for ~free from ~anywhere.

deagle502• 2 years ago

using "missed the mark" should have a prison sentence

nickff• 2 years ago

You think someone using a common idiom should be in prison, while you can't be bothered to use punctuation?

alistairSH5• 2 years ago

Or capitalization.

deagle502• 2 years ago

lack of punctuation isn't used to avoid accountability.

my comment was clearly hyperbole.

silisili2• 2 years ago

I've already opined my thoughts on the video, no need to redo here.

Strictly speaking about the article, it feels more like 'go away' lip-service, especially seeing as the bottom contains the ad - still up on Apple's official YouTube. If they really felt it 'missed the mark' and were sorry about it, they'd have probably taken it down.

gabesullice• 2 years ago

Apologizing bought them another round of "earned media". Not only did the ad get press, now the apology gets press, exposing the message "there's a new, thinner iPad" to people who didn't see the ad before.

I personally don't care if the ad was good or bad. I'm not an interested shareholder and I'm not in the Apple ecosystem.

But I just learned there's a new iPad via HN.

Maybe they'll take down the ad next week for a third bite at the apple. The first line of the article might read: 'Apple has cracked under pressure after the company's botched launch of the thinnest M4 iPad ever. The company took down its "Crush!" ad on Monday.'

Pikamander2• 2 years ago

The week after: "Apple Slammed For Reinstating Infamous iPad Crush Ad"

bmitc6• 2 years ago

I'm always reminded of this from South Park:

https://youtu.be/15HTd4Um1m4

trustno2• 2 years ago

Yeah they still feature it online and on their official website.

It's just "we take your concerns very seriously" fluff reply.

thejazzman• 2 years ago

It really exemplifies the culture change from Steve's obsession with the INTERSECTION of humanities and science.

Silicon Valley on a mission

PurestGuava4• 2 years ago

Steve Jobs would have probably fired whoever suggested this ad, at best. He always saw the Mac as an enabler of and conduit for peoples' creativity, not a replacement for other forms of it.

Jobs' death is truly tragic in the context that Apple - and by extension, the rest of the tech world - could have gone in a very different direction if he were still around. He would probably be screaming his head off at the idea of generative AI.

nonrandomstring3• 2 years ago

Silicon Valley on a mission

Seriously and sincerely, I'd like to hear a dozen definitions of what people think that "mission" is in 2024.

I think we long departed from "making the world a better place". And yet the change simply cannot be explained by greed, money, or obsession with growth.

Surely a lot of the venture capitalists that frequent this forum must be as confused as the next person if they still hold on to the ideal of "doing good with money".

What I see is the rise of a terrifying quasi-religious anti-humanist cult with overtones of masochism and self-hatred (of human life).

I'm no big fan of Steve Jobs, but clearly he would be horrified by many of the anti-human sentiments expressed daily in forums like this.

Is it too late to redefine digital technology as humane, and return to the roots of SV [0] ?

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Californian_Ideology

CatWChainsaw5• 2 years ago

Between e/acc+singularity, hyper-libertarianism and the actual locked-in, rent-seeking, culture-choking techno-feudalism we're getting, it's always been pretty obvious to me that the "mission" is to become the secular equivalent of a god, and then reign eternal, just like the world-building genre of games primes them for.

Too bad it's a big club and everybody here won't be in it, eh.

russellbeattie2• 2 years ago

Another day, another stupid "controversy" where a few Twits complain on social media simply to get attention and publications pick it up as if it's a real issue. Why waste our time?

Here's the ad:

https://youtu.be/ntjkwIXWtrc

Apocryphon10• 2 years ago

As noted elsewhere in this discussion, the ad attracted particular criticism from Japan for what it sounds like cultural-spiritual sensibilities.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cld0rxlqgggo

People based in Japan appear to be prominent amongst the critics, which some said "lacked respect".
Some said this was based in "tsukumogami” - a term from Japanese folklore describing a tool which can contain a spirit or even soul of its own.
"The act of destroying tools is arrogant and offensive to us Japanese," one person explained, while another said musicians value their instruments "more than life itself".

https://twitter.com/AngelicaOung/status/1788241764383678900

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

russellbeattie2• 2 years ago

So, let's reverse this. A Japanese company's online advertisement offends some American sensibilities (not a stretch to imagine). So a few hundred Americans comment on the video and on Twitter.

Would that deserve a news article and a statement from the company?

ahefner• 2 years ago

Never apologize.

SV_BubbleTime5• 2 years ago

It will never be enough.

noitpmeder• 2 years ago

It's a bit insane to me that Apple felt the need to "apologize"... so they made a crappy AD that didn't appeal to some audiences... is this really grounds for retractions/apologies these days?

thorum2• 2 years ago

It didn’t just not appeal to some audiences. It actively alienated one of the primary audiences of their product. Of course that requires a response.

thsksbd5• 2 years ago

And alienated them in a very very primal way. Artisans love their trade tools.

blargey• 2 years ago

I'm confused about the confusion, really. It's not hard to imagine how "tech company compressing all your traditional art tools into a blackbox" imagery would have struck some nerves that were already rubbed raw by the AI-Art Discourse.

It's not just general sensibilities, it's comically topical.

wombat-man2• 2 years ago

Well, we're talking about it

rvnx• 2 years ago

Doesn't create the urge to buy an iPad, the same way that Elon speeches don't make people want to buy a Tesla.

tharkun__3• 2 years ago

I had no idea this ad existed until this came through here. But having watched it: seems totally fine.

They're just playing "earth". To make diamonds you apply pressure. The iPad is the diamond resulting from crushing all that creativity into a tiny form factor.

Or something like that.

pesfandiar• 2 years ago

The ad had multiple shots where the creative tools were crushed. There was too much emphasis on destruction as opposed to compression.

dorkwood• 2 years ago

I've seen a few people mistake the outrage felt by artists as them misunderstanding the concept. I'm an artist, and I understand the concept just fine (all these tools are squeezed into the form factor of an iPad! Our thinnest one ever!) but the visual itself is tone deaf. Especially with artists feeling so threatened by tech companies this year, using a metaphor that shows their tools quite literally being crushed is insensitive.

It's a bit like if you made a video that showed my dog getting crushed in a hydraulic press and replaced with a tamagotchi-like device. Like, I get the idea, but it still makes me want to cry.

tivert• 2 years ago

I had no idea this ad existed until this came through here. But having watched it: seems totally fine.

I presume you're a technology person, so maybe it's a good illustration of how tech sensibilities are far from universal and can be extremely tone deaf.

xdennis3• 2 years ago

You're being too generous to an ad which isn't even original ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcUAQ2i5Tfo ).

nxobject• 2 years ago

Ads target specific audiences, and I think they forgot to test theirs with very specific ones...

TaylorAlexander• 2 years ago

is this really grounds for retractions/apologies these days?

Ostensibly yes. Or maybe Apple has missed the mark on their apology too...

powersnail• 2 years ago

The point of advertisement is to attract people to the product. If the ad alienates enough of their potential user base, it totally makes sense to try to take that back, and make amends. To me, that alone is enough ground for retraction/apologies.

mjbamford• 2 years ago

I have been an Apple user since June 1983, and have repeatedly sung the praises of the company, its technology and its vision for decades to friends, family employers and employees. Some of my own identify is strangely drawn from being an Apple aficionado for so long. Personally, this ad was very disappointing, very crushing - to purposefully destroy instruments of creativity is rudely incongruous to my understand of the meaning of Apple.

bmitc6• 2 years ago

Apple is the most draconian company and operating system maker. It's astounding that they're associated with creativity. They make it really hard to even use their devices as computers. And they've made the same aluminium rectangles for decades now. Literally, where is the creativity?

hnaccount_rng3• 2 years ago

Yeah, I had the same impression (admittedly I was already slightly biased once I saw the ad). On a very deep level it shows, that there is some serious lack in core understanding why Apple is useful in the world. How anyone at Apple can see a destructive thing in an ad and say "Yep, that's us" is just beyond me

globular-toast• 2 years ago

Any publicity is good publicity. "Some people find advert offensive" isn't a story. "Apple apologises for advert" is.

willis9363• 2 years ago

This wasn't true before the internet and it is especially wrong today.

KaiserPro• 2 years ago

Its more that it pissed off its core market.

The whole point of apple is that its aimed at the "creative" segment. Whether they are actually creative or not is another matter. One of the core pillars of apple's appeal is that creative people use it's stuff.

The main pitch is that Apple helps you be creative as an augment. Look at all the other Ads they pitch to creatives.

The ironic thing is that the advert neatly sums up what the tech/media giants are trying to do to the creative segment (and have been doing for a while)

Workaccount24• 2 years ago

I think the real sore spot it hit is outing all the faux creative types who think owning an Apple product makes them creative.

Apple probably looked at usage stats and saw that 100x as many people use the ipad as piano than hook up an actual piano.

pompino3• 2 years ago

Yeah, apparently its hard to just move on with your life after watching something you dont like. This making front page on HN is wild. The echo chamber is sealed tight.

guappa7• 2 years ago

I have a hard time taking seriously the opinion of someone named "blow job" in italian.

anon3738392• 2 years ago

I don’t think that’s what’s driving the attention. Plenty of companies make tasteless or unpleasant ads. But Apple? It’s just bewildering.

cqqxo4zV46cp2• 2 years ago

Honestly, yes. Reading the overly emotive language in these comments, it’s pretty clear that many people here are just looking to be outraged and / or got caught up in the herd mentality of it all. I genuinely don’t think that most of the people here would feel this strongly if they hadn’t seen it through the lens of some tweet or click-hungry Apple blog exclaiming “what the hell!”

The error here, on Apple’s part, is that they made an ad that people can so easily lean into hating and publicly attribute it to some sort of intelligent, intellectual attribute that they want to signal to others.

And for the record, I don’t really care about the ad one way or another. It struck me as unremarkable for an Apple ad. It’s blindingly obvious that the right person lit a match at the right time, and this quickly turned into something else. I truly can’t believe that Apple chose now to engage with the peanut gallery.

pcurve2• 2 years ago

They could say nothing. They could double down and explain. Or they could apologize, cut their losses and move on.

Most company in the same situation would've done the same. Apple didn't have a choice.

xyst5• 2 years ago

Is it even a real apology? Apple has joined the ranks of issuing corporate apologies

https://www.fastcompany.com/40574083/facebook-uber-wells-far... (From 2018)

zitterbewegung2• 2 years ago

I thought the ad was great but to actually have to apologize for it ?? I am a self admitted Apple fanboy but while I don’t see eye to eye on this I really don’t see the offensiveness .

But in the grand scheme of things it might sell more iPads due to the Streisand effect.

pertymcpert3• 2 years ago

A lot of people have strong emotional connections to their artistic tools like instruments. It's a very common reaction to feel discomfort at the sight of an instrument being destroyed. Emotional attachments are irrational, but the point of an advertisement isn't to be rational otherwise they'd just show a spec sheet as a still in a video.

Apple really fucked up here. Did no one on their marketing team bring this up?

refulgentis• 2 years ago

When I was a young'n, Apple was very big on treating artists and creatives as a set of people they were humbled to have stumbled into helping.

Marketing was driven by ideas like avoiding "speeds and feeds", in the words of Steve, and emotionally connecting with users: ex. famous lore is an Apple ad is never "Buy the New Galaxy Plus Pro S6 with the 120 megapixel 240x Zoom!" it's "Soft tinkling music as smiling father takes video of 5 year old sledding down hill in snow"

I'm not saying they always obeyed those principles in every single ad until yesterday, but you'd be hard pressed (lol) to explain to someone a decade ago why Apple's first ad for a once-in-3-years iPad launch was...crushing a bunch of creative tools to communicate they shaved half a millimeter off.

It's funny being old because the thing that confuses me is why people have reactions to reactions, ex. people saying "based, why should they have to apologize anyway, it wasn't offensive"...it clearly wasn't offensive in that sense! It was just bizarrely off-brand.

PurestGuava4• 2 years ago

It's funny being old because the thing that confuses me is why people have reactions to reactions, ex. people saying "based, why should they have to apologize anyway, it wasn't offensive"...it clearly wasn't offensive in that sense!

Some people just really seem to object to the idea that anyone could ever experience an emotion and have it not be based on some kind of cold rationality.

The idea of feeling something in your gut, something visceral, is anathema to them.

yareal2• 2 years ago

Imagine something you care about, maybe a family dog. Now put it in a hydraulic press. Cut back to "Nintendogs now available!"

For many, musical instruments and artists tools carry not just their functional nature but a spiritual or cultural identity. A piano isn't just a box with some metal strings inside, it represents something. That guitar could have been played, instead it's destroyed.

The as is also needlessly wasteful. It communicates a sense of disregard for the value of stuff. If apple burned a hundred grand and then showed us an iPad, many folks might be like, "what the fuck?" Same sort of vibe.

Nevermark• 2 years ago

For the right brand, with a consistently sick sense of humor, "ridiculous and uncomfortable" can work.

But you never want to tell a story about shooting a happy young dog, and then ask people "Vote for me, I do tough things"!! Don't. do . that.

As humans, we all get lost in our own context sometimes

(Not making any larger political point.)

zitterbewegung2• 2 years ago

I get what they were trying to do which is “the iPad can do all of this and it is thin”. I think I don’t have the personality to have a personal relationship with artist tools …

wilsonnb35• 2 years ago

This is the third time I’ve seen someone compare the crushing of a musical instrument with the crushing of living, feeling beings in this thread and I think you are absurdly off base.

People are mad when you crush their dog because it feels pain and experiences things and has some sense of self, things that inanimate objects cannot have. Not because they no longer have a dog or because of their emotional connection to that particular dog.

Perhaps a better analogy would be putting the corpse of an already deceased family dog in the hydraulic press but that isn’t too dissimilar from cremation.

Probably best to avoid the crushing dogs analogy all together.

01HNNWZ0MV43FF• 2 years ago

(Apple) released a “Crush!” commercial that shows things like a piano, record player, paint, and other works flattening under the pressure of a hydraulic press. At the end, only one thing remains: an iPad Pro.

I thought it was gonna be something else.

spiderice• 2 years ago

I’m just happy to see the overwhelming consensus on the internet is “apologizing for what”. Apple shouldn’t be apologizing at all. The add was cool.

thsksbd5• 2 years ago

Cool? Putting aside the controversial content, the aesthetic was cliche. Same edgy lighting, same colors saturation. It was terrible.

divan2• 2 years ago

It was very painful to see musical instruments and cameras/lenses destroyed. These things are so dear to many creative people that it feels like watching someone's arm being cut off. No matter how cool the camerawork is, it just sends a very negative message about the product and their marketing team.

mindwok6• 2 years ago

I play guitar and I didn’t find it painful to watch. I thought it was a cool idea illustrating all those instruments being compressed into a tiny device.

anon3738392• 2 years ago

The ad was strangely off-brand for Apple. But I suppose they’ve been trending edgier and moodier in their advertising lately. I just don’t get why - they had a really effective brand to begin with.

BMW, too, used to have an impeccable brand.

fooker• 2 years ago

Expanding to markets outside the US, if I had to guess.

Minimalism doesn't sell everywhere.

thsksbd5• 2 years ago

It was a creepy ad. They zoomed in when a doll's eye popped out.

alistairSH5• 2 years ago

Uh what’s the problem? The ad isn’t great, but why the pitchforks?

pertymcpert3• 2 years ago

alistairSH5• 2 years ago

It was an entire room in a press. I didn’t even notice an instrument…

hestefisk• 2 years ago

I’m struggling a bit to see why this ad is controversial.

Grazester3• 2 years ago

It's the times we live in. People have just become overly sensitive it seems. Apple needs to apologize or risk a cancel culture backlash.

switch007• 2 years ago

Apple has absolutely no issue capitalising on “woke” in their tv shows. Like, really going all in.

nonrandomstring3• 2 years ago

People have just become overly sensitive it seems.

I hear this said a lot, but know of no psychological evidence that people have actually become more "sensitive" (by which I mean neurotic, defensive etc).

What's happened is that people became better informed, educated, and communicative. They're more comfortable with expressing. And that's mainly down to technology which facilitated cultural change.

It is natural for that to turn inward. This is the evolution of critique. It took many years from Gutenberg to Vanity Fair. Literary criticism only emerged once the medium itself was mature.

The same thing is happening in technology as Lewis Mumford predicted. Technological critique. has come of age with AI.

Anybody so unsophisticated as to ignore that, like Apple, is doomed.

No one gives a shit how "thin" or "powerful" your gadget is. They care what it means to them and their values. Apple, of all organisations, should be mindful of that.

amatecha7• 2 years ago

No one's like crying out here or jumping off a bridge. People are just kinda ticked, or disappointed. There's no "cancel culture" happening here. Why such a reactionary interpretation of the ad's poor reception? o_O

diputsmonro7• 2 years ago

Would you prefer a world wherein people aren't allowed to speak their mind instead?

Stop being so sensitive about people "being sensitive" and engage in the discussion instead of dismissing it.

All this complaining about "cancel culture" is just complaining that other people are using their freedom of speech in a way that you don't like. This is what freedom is speech means - disagreement. Stop whining about people disagreeing with you. Either address the arguments they're making to further the conversation, or deal with it.

jprete5• 2 years ago

Crushing the tools of art and fun into a tiny technological device is maybe a little tone-deaf in the context of AI trying to crush all scrapeable human creation into a model that would fit on that same iPad.

kccqzy3• 2 years ago

They are destroying everything analog used by humans for fun and creativity, including a piano, a trumpet, paint, an arcade machine, synthesizers, and toys. In return we have one soulless bland iPad. If you have any object remotely similar to the ones depicted as destroyed, you will feel anger and pain at the sight of destruction.

SV_BubbleTime5• 2 years ago

People who want to be “outraged” do it partly for the shared performance of it.

ThrowawayTestr6• 2 years ago

Because the average mental age of consumers has been decreasing rapidly

TheGamerUncle• 2 years ago

When I was younger, I used to believe that the antiquated image of the hipster or upper-class white Starbucks artist who owns a Mac was a cliché, an invention of the boomers. But as I have had to deal with some creative teams.

I have come to loathe and disdain this kind of person I did not think even existed a decade ago. The sad truth is that a lot of people of a certain demographic will prefer to die before even switching to Windows, let alone Linux or something open. And sadly, a small part of the tech world is the same; they think that their experience with Windows and Android more than a decade ago is reflective of how they work now. Thus, Apple could spit on their faces, and yet they will still like it. Sadly, nothing to do with people who just suck up to modern Apple.

Apocryphon10• 2 years ago

Aside from the destruction of low-tech artistic tools triggering non-tech people aspect, tonally the ad was also overly edgy, which is off-brand for Apple. As noted elsewhere, it felt like a video game commercial from the '90s: gratuitous in its attention-seeking.

https://twitter.com/cuniiform/status/1788013085392859171

And it's actually already been done before, by Nintendo:

https://twitter.com/rsnous/status/1788047377556791321

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzAo9HzOgtQ

madrox2• 2 years ago

1984 was edgy for its time. I think the difficulty is that the iPad is no longer an edgy product. The least edgy thing you could be these days is an iPad owner, and this ad wasn't the one to change that.

Apocryphon10• 2 years ago

"1984" was edgy in a cool way, but that's not the type of edginess I'm evoking. Most '90s video game commercials that were edgy did so in a puerile, juvenile way as befitting the target audience. And not just video game ads, there was definitely a big "xtreme" trend as well.

The Apple ad taps into that xtreme vibe by embracing destructive energy to depict a physical contrast. Which is visually attention-grabbing, but it puts the focus on the act of destruction, and reduction, and people who like the destroyed objects feel miffed.

"1984" I'd say was edgy in a rebellious way as you point out, which I'd argue gives it more substance. The sledgehammer hitting the screen isn't even the focus, it's the climax to a sequence that carries more of a meaningful message than "wow look how much functionality we fit into this thin shell."

somenameforme2• 2 years ago

1984 [1] was edgy precisely because it worked as a criticism of society and culture, and then showed a way to 'break free' of mindless dystopia. This [2] ad is pretty much the exact and literal opposite. It essentially takes a sampling of the great things that culture and society has produced, destroys them, and then shows the Product, while literally singing "All I Ever Need Is You." Here [3] a guy basically reversed the ad, with the iPad being crushed, and then slowly lifting it up to have all the great stuff in society come out of it. And suddenly it's actually quite uplifting and positive!

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtvjbmoDx-I

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntjkwIXWtrc

[3] https://twitter.com/rezawrecktion/status/1788211832936861950

rchaud7• 2 years ago

It was also edgy because the company CEO was a barefoot hippie who got fired from stodgy HP for, among other things, poor hygiene.

Apple today is the one size fits all megacorp the 1984 ad railed against.

aprilnya2• 2 years ago

Re: the Pokémon commercial, I feel like the Apple commercial put way more focus into the actual destruction of the instruments… Like, a lot of its runtime was spent on actually showing each thing getting destroyed individually, so it has a completely different energy compared to the silly Pokémon one

It’s like if the Pokémon one showed each Pokémon getting crushed with splattering and gore…

whywhywhywhy3• 2 years ago

Yeah there was revelling in the visual and nuance of their destruction. Could have done the whole thing CG where the objects squished together satisfyingly like they were made of clay rather than cracking and shattering. Honestly was easier/cheaper to do also.

mrzool• 2 years ago

destruction of low-tech artistic tools triggering non-tech people

This was really poorly worded and sounded very elitist and dismissive, I trust this was not the intention.

jbm• 2 years ago

On the contrary, I wish this was dismissive. It's about time that the Overton window gets shifted about the overly nostalgic articles that get praised by "the right people", which means we need to "read the room" and share the same opinions.

It is an absolutely good thing that an inexpensive device is replacing an expensive one, and that impoverished children will be able to create music with an inexpensive iPad and will not be forced to learn obsolete methods to "finger" an instrument.

johnnyanmac7• 2 years ago

we're on a technical forum, but "low tech" isn't inherently inferior. All the MIDI's in the world can't truly replace a good ol' acoustic sound. That's why we still have Orchaestras.

The other half, sure. To think that all tech people are welcoming the current portrayal of AI/LLM's/Generative Art is simply tone deaf. Some of the most cynical detractors are in fact highly technical people.

Apocryphon10• 2 years ago

For low-tech I meant analog as opposed to digital. And I meant nothing pejorative in non-tech; these days, there's fewer and fewer positive connotations in being techie.

yareal2• 2 years ago

I'm a tech person, and I found the destruction of beautiful things quite distasteful. I don't think it was only non tech people who disliked it.

bitwize3• 2 years ago

Yikes, that was really offbrand for Nintendo also, but it fits within their 90s "Play It Loud" marketing strategy wherein they tried to compete with ow-the-edge Sega and later Sony.

franciscop• 2 years ago

Tonally isn't it kind of like the 1984 Apple commercial?

willis9363• 2 years ago

1984 was about breaking free from the bondage of an Orwellian society. Crush is a celebration of creating that bondage.

rchaud7• 2 years ago

Yeah if the ad was for IBM.

steve19774• 2 years ago

I challenge you to manufacture a well-sounding and nicely tuned piano and then reconsider the term "low tech"

Apocryphon10• 2 years ago

I meant digital vs. analog, nothing pejorative

jjulius4• 2 years ago

Aside from the destruction of low-tech artistic tools triggering non-tech people aspect...

604 comments on this HN post (at the time of writing this), the bulk of which appear to be opposed to this video, and you're trying to tell me that tech folk aren't, to use your word, "triggered"? C'mon now.

Apocryphon10• 2 years ago

Of course people are, that’s the main source of the controversy. I’m just exploring a side aspect about why this ad doesn’t work.

edkennedy• 2 years ago

Missing from this extremely short and underreported article is how badly this played out in Japanese market. The culture they have states that musical instruments, creative tools have some energy and imbued sense of spirit to them. So destroying these elements of culture is really really blunt and gauche to them. The majority of the push back came from Japanese people, and then artists empathizing with their sentiment.

superb_dev• 2 years ago

Given that context, it’s nuts that this ad was approved for the Japanese market

smugma2• 2 years ago

I’ve seen a few comments about this. Is there any English page that documents this in more detail? I find it really interesting.

rjh292• 2 years ago

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinto

bitwize3• 2 years ago

See also:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mottainai

Apocryphon10• 2 years ago

Really interesting to consider that this might be one of the few incidents that Shintoists, or at least "cultural Shintoists," have gotten offended at a western production.

Makes me wonder if this is why Apple went out of their way to apologize for the ad. I think if this ad just had non-culturally-specific backlash, they would've simply moved on. But because this impacted a specific market's sensibilities, maybe they felt the need to do a public mea culpa.

xattt2• 2 years ago

This is a market where shame and apologies still have significance.

adrian_b2• 2 years ago

I have seen recently a documentary about Japanese food, and an interesting fact was that the chefs at some big Japanese restaurant had a special decorated grave, in some nice yard, in which they deposited their old kitchen knives, when those were so worn out that they could no longer be used.

They felt that it would be disrespectful to just dump somewhere the main tools of their work, after they had used those every day for decades.

smsm422• 2 years ago

I think a lot of people are a little bit Shintoist. That's one of the reasons why we have museums - we regard things as some kind of reflection on people and events, and a chair in which a famous person sat or an instrument they played is different for us than otherwise identical object that doesn't bear that imprint. We may not literally believe in things having spirits, but for many the things have some qualities that go beyond their physical structure. Emotional value, etc.

brundolf2• 2 years ago

I'm not Japanese and it was upsetting to me

Not because eg one piano got destroyed; surely that happens all the time, even on camera for eg movies and such. But there was something about watching beautiful objects be destroyed, in slow motion, gratuitously, and with an upbeat/sunny tone, that just aesthetically made me squirm in my seat

shmageggy• 2 years ago

It goes beyond aesthetics for me. It's like they took everyone's deepest fears about technology and AI, that it will replace or "crush" authentic human experience and creativity, and they just embraced and celebrate it by literally crushing representations of human creativity. At least I'm glad the corporate types were actually honest about their goals, though, instead of their typical doublespeak

lifeinthevoid• 2 years ago

It looks animated to me, I don't think a lot of real objects were destroyed. (Not an expert though)

supriyo-biswas2• 2 years ago

Exactly my thoughts - this ad does very little to invoke the desire for the product, unlike many other Apple ads.

It's not like Apple has forgotten how to make such ads - the recent one for iPhones with family members asking to not be let go while the owner tries to delete photos represented a familiar experience of people trying to free up storage, and how they wouldn't have to do that if they bought a new iPhone.

On the other hand, this ad just shows stuff being destroyed, just like some of those useless Youtube videos which shows perfectly usable stuff being destroyed under the pretext of "ASMR" or whatnot. Not only is it very difficult to watch as someone who didn't have a lot of money and was taught to make careful use of it from an early age, it just invokes negative vibes, as if possessing a musical instrument is something to be ashamed of.

xdennis3• 2 years ago

I'm not bothered by the destruction. Destruction itself can have artistic value. For example, you can't portray the Nazis on screen without showing how destructive they were.

What bothers me is the arrogance to say that an iPad, a device which will be obsolete in a few short years, can replace all those instruments and tools that last more than a generation.

This is similar to the history channels which use AI colorized historical footage which wildly shifts objects from red to blue in a few frames and have the audacity to claim this is an improvement over the original.

FrustratedMonky• 2 years ago

I had same reaction to the 'niceness' of what they were crushing. Things looked too good, like still usable. What if they were slightly older and dinged, scuffed up, looked more like they were done being useful.

jacobsimon• 2 years ago

I haven’t seen anyone mention this yet, but I think the concept here was inspired by all the viral hydraulic press videos on Instagram and TikTok. Here’s a similar video showing random objects and consumer products being crushed in slow motion with similar upbeat music: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=q9BtYEnrkg4

s3p4• 2 years ago

For me it was just because of the damage it caused. I guess if I heard someone was throwing out a piano I wouldn't think much of it, but the destruction of everything in the ad made me uneasy. I just felt like it was so wasteful to destroy things in the way they did. But again, maybe I have a double standard, because if I saw someone throw a trumpet or an old camera in the dumpster I probably would not care as much.

numpad02• 2 years ago

Absolutely no offense - I don't see what this has to do with Japan at all although this has been repeated everywhere. I think this is just an unfortunate natural intuition.

Japanese users normally aren't exposed to the rest of WWW at all, even on social media, so there's intuition that any notable interactions observed has to do with the four-seasons and egg sandwiches way. But it's also true that there are 0.35x as many of the people here as there are US Americans, or 1.5x more than Germans, which creates a lot of presence in itself, possibly even grossly exaggerated on Twitter due to cultural fit and ongoing collapse of its en-US bubbles. I think this instance is example of the latter being the case mistaken as the former.

okdood64• 2 years ago

Japan’s iPhone marketshare is one of the largest. You can bet a lot of folks cared to watch it.

blhack• 2 years ago

Was there a similar backlash to this identical ad from LG in 2009? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcUAQ2i5Tfo

type0• 2 years ago

Apple ads team should apologize to LG for stealing their ad

pornel• 2 years ago

The popular sentiment has changed from enthusiasm about "digital", to disillusionment about big tech inserting themselves into our lives to monetize everything.

In 2009, smartphones were a novelty, and the iPad has not been announced yet. People were wowed by the new capabilities that "multimedia" devices were enabling. They were getting rid of the old, outdated, less capable tools.

Nowadays "multimedia" is taken for granted. OTOH generative AI is turning creative arts into commoditized digital sludge. Apple acts like they own and have the right to control everything that is digital. In this world, the analog instruments are a symbol of the last remnants of true human skill, and the physical world that hasn't been taken over by the big tech yet. And Apple is forcefully and destructively smushing it all into AI-chip-powered you-owe-us-30%-for-existing disneyland distopia.

_zoltan_3• 2 years ago

Do you know if it aired in Japan as an ad?

If not, then I am not sure what you're talking about.

rideontime2• 2 years ago

It aired on the Internet, which is available in Japan. You can see some examples of backlash from Japanese people in the replies to this tweet, if you have a twitter account. https://twitter.com/tim_cook/status/1787864325258162239

michaelcampbell• 2 years ago

The majority of the push back came from Japanese people,

Cite?

Osmium• 2 years ago

Good, the ad was really disturbing. An ad is just an ad and not the biggest deal in the scheme of things but that was really unpleasant to watch. For me, it was the visual of needless destruction and waste as much as the meta-message.

PurestGuava4• 2 years ago

It's the needless destruction that really gets to me. I have a fairly visceral reaction to seeing things that someone put time, effort and scarce resources into making get destroyed for no reason, and Apple's ad hit so many nerves in that respect. It's just a complete waste, and that's before we get into the whole subtext of "tech is going to destroy 'IRL' art forms" that many people got.

poochkoishi728• 2 years ago

How do you know they weren't broken items anyway?

simiones• 2 years ago

What baffles me the most is the choice to include human figurines (the bust, the statue, the smiley right at the end). The imagery of human figures getting crushed is going to look disturbing even to the least environmentally conscious viewers.

vehemenz• 2 years ago

Most people didn’t find the ad disturbing, so the offensiveness is a relation between you and the content, not the content itself.

iamwil• 2 years ago

I saw it felt nothing other than a morbid kind of "will it blend?". I think the ad is fine. It did its job. I mean, people are talking about it. They just can't use the same schtick again. But there's no need to apologize for it.

madrox2• 2 years ago

This really shows how much sentiments about technology have changed in the last five or so years. If this ad came out in 2018 it would have been received differently, I think. The buzz has worn off. People don't see doing everything on your device as progress. iPads are no longer novel.

Apple has been so used to growing new markets that I don't think they even know how to market when they're on top. All their best ads have been when using their products speaks to being a rebel. Nowadays the least rebellious thing you could be is an Apple user.

Apocryphon10• 2 years ago

The (m)Ad Man's Dilemma

thorum2• 2 years ago

Many artists now view the tech industry as a credible threat to their work and livelihood, because of AI. If you want them to buy your products, it’s probably a good idea to show some sensitivity to that concern.

john2x• 2 years ago

I hope that it's this. Artists are trend setters, and often define a generation's culture.

Alienating them is (or should be) a huge mistake in my mind.

pseudalopex3• 2 years ago

This really shows how much sentiments about technology have changed in the last five or so years. If this ad came out in 2018 it would have been received differently, I think. The buzz has worn off. People don't see doing everything on your device as progress. iPads are no longer novel.

I think not. 2018 was not so different. People talked about what is now called enshittification. Apple, Google, and Facebook introduced screen time controls because concerns had grown year after year.

I think an ad showing the same objects sucked into a tablet would have been received much better now. I doubt the lurid destruction of art, creative tools, and symbols of culture and history would have been received much better in 2004.

jjulius4• 2 years ago

I think an ad showing the same objects sucked into a tablet would have been received much better now. I doubt the lurid destruction of art, creative tools, and symbols of culture and history would have been received much better in 2004.

Except that the opposite appears to be true. There are numerous examples throughout this HN thread of companies like LG and Nintendo doing similar things (LG back in 2018, Nintendo I'm not sure when) without receiving the same kind of flack as this ad is.

You have to remember that it was only in the past year or two that AI has really scared the shit out of the creative community. That sentiment didn't exist in the past when these kinds of commercials were previously made. There has been a shift, and right now, whether you like it or not, or whether you think artists should be scared or embrace it, to artists it feels like the tech community is pointing a giant middle finger at them.

In 2004, this kinda thing was brand new, and you could spin it as promising to artists. Now that 20 years have passed and people have seen the reality of how things have played out, there is a lot more negativity and apprehension towards it.

Animats2• 2 years ago

Whatever happened with their head-mounted display thing? Haven't heard that mentioned in a while.

xyst5• 2 years ago

Or maybe we are just tired of the wanton destruction of perfectly good items for the sake of …

a stupid ad.

Animats2• 2 years ago

Was that made with Unreal Engine 5? The physics has that look.

ExMachina73• 2 years ago

I'm still waiting for Jim Beam to apologize for their "Sweet Caroline" ad.

ak217• 2 years ago

This reminds me of a Google Chromebook ad from a long time ago where they destroy 25 Chromebooks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lm-Vnx58UYo

It felt so sad and tone deaf, a celebration of disposability. I don't think Google ever felt the need to apologize for that one, but then again it was a lot less... graphic than this new Apple ad. It's safe to say Apple outdid Google in this competition.

nox101• 2 years ago

The google ad was showing you your data, what's important to you, is safe.

The Apple ad is showing things people love being destroyed and replaced by a inferior replacement

rpy2• 2 years ago

If a bunch of CGI objects being crushed is disturbing to people wait til they see this movie of a train coming directly at you.

smugma2• 2 years ago

What about the video makes you think it was CG?

rpy2• 2 years ago

Are you suggesting the emoji squeeze toy conveniently rolled perfectly to the edge of the hydraulic press at exactly the right moment and then its eyes uniformly popped out? A perfectly uniform explosion of dust actually burst out the press? Seems doubtful.

latexr3• 2 years ago

wait til they see this movie of a train coming directly at you.

The reports of fear about that movie have been greatly exaggerated.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/did-a-silent-film-abou...

xnx• 2 years ago

9to5Google pointed out that the Apple ad is a near exact copy of this LG ad from 2008: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcUAQ2i5Tfo

The (accidental?) plagiarism of the ad is nearly as bad as the vibe.

lioeters• 2 years ago

So not only was it tasteless and out of touch, it wasn't even original. Can't help but feel that it's a reflection of where Apple is at these days.

jen729w• 2 years ago

Because Apple are famous these days for copying other people’s ideas?

I don’t believe that this is the general consensus.

cm21872• 2 years ago

On the other hand if your product has become a commodity and the new version barely changes from the previous one, you are entering detergent advertising territory.

CamperBob26• 2 years ago

Wow, you're not exaggerating. That actually does bring a legitimate accusation of plagiarism to the table. Compare 0:13 in the LG ad to 0:37 in the Apple version.

Never mind that the artwork itself looks straight out of DALL-E 2, with its orange-bluish cast. Who is calling the creative shots at Apple these days?!

cjk22• 2 years ago

The amber/teal stuff is mostly because it makes the foreground warmer and the backgrounds colder drawing the audience's focus. Or so the theory goes. I think it's just more of a case of "fuck it, no one is going to complain if we do this"

Check out the transformers films - those are the canonical punch in the face in that department.

trimethylpurine9• 2 years ago

Did LG get backlash from the Japanese community? It might be interesting to compare why and why not.

makeitdouble5• 2 years ago

LG in 2008 was not on Japanese people's map regarding to phones, their "Chocolate" line was an utter failure that got the brand promptly forgotten. I doubt that spot was even aired in Japan.

ekianjo3• 2 years ago

LG was never big in Japan while most Japanese people use an iPhone

trashtester2• 2 years ago

Korea and Japan have .... history ....

delusional• 2 years ago

Eh, It's a pretty obvious premise. I think it's reasonable for two creative teams to come up with the same unoriginal/uninteresting premise. The execution of the Apple version is also miles ahead.

Ylpertnodi• 2 years ago

...as is technology.

guappa7• 2 years ago

*streets ahead (sorry, I just watched that episode a few days ago)

odiroot• 2 years ago

"Plagiarism" (and years late at that) is something they're very familiar with ;)

serial_dev• 2 years ago

In my opinion, it's one of those ideas that are so obvious that I wouldn't necessarily think it's plagiarism.

It's a small electronic device that replaces so many real world things. It's like all these things 'zipped' into one... Okay good idea, but how do we make it look cool?... Epic music... And Explosions!

The ad is actually less embarrassing than the fact that how uncreative this is.

On the other hand, it's also hard to imagine that a bunch of people working in the ad business / phones / creative marketing, and not one of them said while working on this ad: "hey guys, aren't we just redoing that phone ad from 15 years ago?"

Terretta3• 2 years ago

how uncreative this is ... aren't we just redoing that thing from 15 years ago?

People of a certain age are informed by shared cultural touchstones.

Those making ads in these timeframes are ages where they all experienced the Star Wars trash compactor scene as a visceral moment pressed into their psyches:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6u3QInIMVME

As a child, the blasters and light sabres are make believe, but the compactor closing in slowly on Luke, Leah, C3PO, that felt real. Kids could feel that big squeeze. It was ... VIVID.

When you start making create visual experiences (ads in particular), it's not uncommon you'll reference such touchstones. You'll get approved by marketing committees because they too have that touchstone in their pasts.

The original scene plots out as an increasing stress, but ends with a relief. Ad creatives often "quote" these if they feel they can match/replay the original emotional beats, here implied looming threat, visceral danger building agonizingly slowly, realization of total destruction, saved by suddenly revealed relief.

Nintendo, LG, and Apple all tried to have their "product placement" land in that surprise moment revealing the pressure relief: a sleight of hand where this moment, this thing, is the MacGuffin associated with the stress vanishing.

Is this uncreative? "Aren't we just redoing Star Wars New Hope?" Sure. But ads that connect to the beats of touchstones inside the viewer do evoke more reaction, and the ads aren't quoting each other, they're quoting the original.

Art often quotes art, the quoting considered both creative and effective.

stef253• 2 years ago

Damn. The plagiarism is at least as bad as the vibe. WTF Apple.

montag• 2 years ago

Folks, this is not plagiarism. It’s simply unoriginal.

adhvaryu• 2 years ago

What an untasteful advert.

xyst5• 2 years ago

So Apple picked up a ad directory from the LG reject pool. How sad.

itronitron• 2 years ago

But the hydraulic press in the Apple ad has rounded corners.

marcosdumay5• 2 years ago

The "documentary" tone of this one makes it way less bad than the Apple.

_zoltan_3• 2 years ago

and nobody complained then, just as nobody should complain now, but unfortunately the world turned into this in the last couple of years.

Nition5• 2 years ago

And that one looks actually real, whereas I'm pretty sure the Apple ad is 100% CGI with no objects actually destroyed.

s3p4• 2 years ago

That's what I really want to figure out. I feel like I wouldn't have a problem with it if I knew it was 100% fake and not actual items being destroyed.

WWLink2• 2 years ago

Apple: We're so environmentally friendly!

Also Apple: We still use these fancy boxes that are a pain in the ass to recycle and will more than likely just end up in the trash anyway. They can't be reused for literally anything else because of their size, shape, and way they're glued together. Also, the materials aren't eco-friendly. But who cares because we stopped giving away power bricks and wrap the cables in paper instead of plastic! So Eco Friendly!

Also Apple: Let's take this pile of useful nice stuff, some of which has collector value, and smash it all to make a commercial.

Also they really need to get out of their own ass here. The iPad isn't a piano. The iPad isn't a guitar. You cannot replace any of those musical instruments with an iPad. You can't paint on canvas with an iPad, so destroying paint is silly.

I won't go with "sensitive" here. I see it as tasteless waste. That commercial is tacky AF. What are they trying to market the iPad to? "Fuck your feelings" types that just bought a new cybertruck and have more money than brains?

pompino3• 2 years ago

They are also notoriously anti-repair, block access to spare parts (despite their recent fake pro-repair marketing) so all their repairable products end up in landfills. People are focusing on the irrelevant ad, but the real harm is elsewhere.

thiht• 2 years ago

The iPad isn't a piano. The iPad isn't a guitar. You cannot replace any of those musical instruments with an iPad. You can't paint on canvas with an iPad, so destroying paint is silly.

Literacy truly is dead…

Do you know the iPad is not even built by pressing guitars and toys and paint together?

WWLink2• 2 years ago

I'm a computer engineer, yes of course I do. What are you?

card_zero• 2 years ago

To be fair, you probably can paint on canvas with an iPad, if the canvas is sufficiently large and you use the impasto technique.

servus45678981• 2 years ago

The things were cgi, nothing was destroyed in the process.

lambda_lord• 2 years ago

The commercial uses a ton of CGI, props, and camera tricks, so how can you be sure it was environmentally unfriendly?

hnburnsy• 2 years ago

Someone posted the ad in reverse, the implication that the new iPad could unleash creatively instead of crushing it.

https://9to5mac.com/2024/05/09/ipad-pro-ad-backwards/

jprete5• 2 years ago

Doing something like that for real (not just a quick edit to demo the idea) would have been a way cooler ad.

Apocryphon10• 2 years ago

iPad Pro: Emerge (cue Fischerspooner)

epiccoleman• 2 years ago

The backwards version of the ad is leaps and bounds better. I'm sure some ad "creative" type somwehere is kicking themselves for not having the same idea.

ChrisArchitect• 2 years ago

[dupe]

Source: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40312595

mgdlbp• 2 years ago

Brings to mind the OK GO music video with all the exploded guitars that they stated were already junk. Spilled paint is reminiscent of their videos too.

They also smashed pianos in the Rube Goldberg video, and a TV with a sledge. Now I wonder if that was a 1984 reference.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BTnGgzO-tU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qybUFnY7Y8w

hayley-patton• 2 years ago

Sledgehammering a little TV was done in the video for Gary Numan - We Are Glass which predates the 1984 ad, which supposedly led to the video being banned from Top of the Pops: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWR8vitO6wQ&t=67

willis9363• 2 years ago

OK GO did it in artistic expression (with a message of "be excellent to each other" even), not in a promise to destroy the concept of art.

ykonstant• 2 years ago

compressedgas• 2 years ago

Not really. There is another Japanese term that I once read an article about that I don't recall and haven't been able to find again which meant:

the anger one feels when sacred objects are desecrated.

rjh292• 2 years ago

Maybe mottainai?

white-moss• 2 years ago

"boutoku" (冒涜) ?

phmx• 2 years ago

And https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mottainai I guess

smarri• 2 years ago

It just seemed really wasteful

ypk2• 2 years ago

I used to play piano and guitar. This ad is soul-crushing.

silvestrov• 2 years ago

A soul-crushing as this: https://adage.com/videos/general-motors-robot/567

I feel sorry for the robot, I definitely don't feel like buying a car.

cm21872• 2 years ago

Then you need to watch this to the end: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU-cori12KU

xdennis3• 2 years ago

I like it, but it matches my morbid sense of humor. I'm surprised that was aired to the general public though.

amatecha7• 2 years ago

Yeah, a single piano is like a portal to another world manifested by beautiful, expressive music. Possibly a life-changing object for a person (or even a whole family) to receive one in their home. It's an insult to the arts to suggest that an iPad is somehow the distillation of that. Nothing surprises me anymore, but it is still disappointing to see such a tone-deaf creation from a company that has been so closely aligned with artists/musicians in the past couple decades.

ThrowawayTestr6• 2 years ago

There is nothing inherent in a piano that can't replicated by a keyboard.

stef253• 2 years ago

Exactly, you need to have a seriously good argument to backup crushing a piano

criddell• 2 years ago

If I had access to a hydraulic press, there’s plenty of times I might have crushed my guitar over the years. Learning an instrument has been very difficult and frustrating for me.

sneak5• 2 years ago

https://youtu.be/QvW61K2s0tA

How about OK Go exploding tons of guitars?

Making video art is more than a legitimate reason to destroy props. This feels like a silly discussion.

wilsonnb35• 2 years ago

They aren’t some kind of mystical magic talisman, just a bunch of wood and metal. Might as well say you need a seriously good argument to crush a dining room table.

People struggle to find someone to take their crappy upright pianos for free because they are worthless. Violin players refer to cheap student instruments as violin shaped objects. You can have a trumpet shipped to your door with same day delivery for $90 on Amazon.

lukko• 2 years ago

why did you stop playing?

Satam6• 2 years ago

Why is it soul crushing? It looks to me like people are projecting their fears and insecurities onto this single ad. Sure, strategically Apple possibly should've caught on before releasing, but people are still being overly sensitive. Should everyone be throwing tantrums about Devin as it's presenting itself to replace developers? It is what it is, things change.

maxbond5• 2 years ago

If you want to know why someone feels a certain way, you will set yourself up for failure by first explaining to them why they shouldn't feel that way (doubly so if you imply they're "throwing a tantrum" or "being overly sensitive"). You've telegraphed your unwillingness to hear them out, so why should they give you any of their time?

Frankly, I have to wonder if you actually want to know or whether the question was a feint so you could express a very personal criticism less directly. If you weren't comfortable saying it to them directly - maybe that's a sign you still have swipes to edit out.

conradfr• 2 years ago

Yes I'm amazed people care that much about an ad from <Megacorp> for their <very expensive device>.

It has probably actually make the ad very successful.

23B12• 2 years ago

THESE are the sort of comments I come to HN for, and I am just drinking it up.

pquki47• 2 years ago

Do you play guitar or piano personally?

If not, you are not going to understand the feelings here, whatever "objective" but useless words you write here.

btw Devin is just a hoax. Look it up, and find better arguments in the future.

lvnfg2• 2 years ago

Imagine an ad for a virtual puppy game using hydraulic press to crush real dogs, showing closeup of twisted broken head and blood splashing on camera and all. Surely you can understand why most people can get very upset seeing that, and dog owners in particular can feel like their soul is being crushed?

Well, artists and musicians can have as much emotional attachment to their tools as pet owners to their pets. To most people the ad is only slight disturbing, but to the artists (and the nostalgic) it’s soul crushing. That’s why Apple is apologizing: they’ve offended their core market.

bmitc6• 2 years ago

I don't think one needs to be Japanese to be offended by that ad. Also, it's amazing at how accurate it is describing Apple's general corporate approach.

ammo16622• 2 years ago

They just apologize for not be able to express "users can express themselves and bring their ideas to life through iPad".

They don't care about destroying those things.

Dylan168072• 2 years ago

Making and breaking a pile of props is a pretty normal consequence of filming something. The actions of the crew are not the problem.

bagels• 2 years ago

I don't think one needs to be offended, it's a choice.

bmitc6• 2 years ago

Is less about being offended and more about having a negative emotional response, which is perfectly natural and often involuntary.

amatecha7• 2 years ago

Yeah, it's a hilarious mimicry of their own process: "recycle" (aka destroy) everyone's old tech and sell them the new version of the same thing. It's like the most direct/blatant depiction of the lifecycle of consumer tech I've ever seen.

seydor• 2 years ago

Wow , pretty horrible ad, and not in a good way. Was it CGI or real ?

gjjydfhgd2• 2 years ago

It's pretty obvious it's real. Cheaper than CGI and better looking.

laserbeam• 2 years ago

Probably a mix. The paint is likely real. The eye popping rubber ball emoji is likely CGI.

Edit: I take that back. My money is on full CGI. I can’t imagine how a brass trumpet would break when placed above an arcade with no physical deformation on the arcade below it.

Terretta3• 2 years ago

can't imagine...

One way would be practical effects.

Multiple items / layers filmed separately for controlled crushes, then combined in post.

rpeden• 2 years ago

A trumpet is a lot weaker in that direction than you're assuming, and a plywood arcade cabinet is a lot stronger than you're giving it credit for.

I'd be very surprised if a bunch of thin brass tubes transmitted enough for force to cause any deformation in an arcade cabinet when being crushed in that direction.

Nition5• 2 years ago

I thought it was clearly 100% CGI, but there certainly is a mixture of opinions here.

mirekrusin• 2 years ago

If they would stop producing all those ads nobody would notice.

o_m• 2 years ago

To me it was weird to see a company who tries to brand themselves as environment friendly destroy what seems to be perfectly fine objects, just for an ad. Even if it was CGI or if the objects were defected.

flanked-evergl• 2 years ago

Was it weird, though? Environmentally friendly branding for companies has never required a company to be environmentally friendly, it's almost always just about being fashionable and avoiding accountability.

cqqxo4zV46cp2• 2 years ago

You’re just looking for things to feel emotional about now. “Even if it was CGI”. That’s really just leaning into an uncharitable interpretation for the sake of it.

aredox• 2 years ago

Funny to see the difference between the comments here and the comments on this HN thread that was flagged: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40310893

badcppdev• 2 years ago

I liked this comment from that thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40310941

Linking to a reversed version of the Ad. Definitely making it better

repelsteeltje• 2 years ago

So much better indeed!

(Though this version of the ad won't persuade me either to buy an iPad)

thinkingemote2• 2 years ago

Your internal view of the brand is being changed or challenged. This causes a type of psychological stress. The iPad is only a machine but Apple the brand has carefully created a brand with emotions feeling and thoughts around it.

People invest themselves in their ideas. the ad isn't concerning for what it does in the ad, but for how it is changing the internal feeling of the brand.

It is like remembering when thinking about a car changed for you. From just a car as a kid to something else, something with more meaning. It's why all car adverts are about emotions.

draugadrotten• 2 years ago

It's why all car adverts are about emotions.

This is my favourite emotional car ad - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sWPHKU1XZU

Apple products does not inspire to such emotions, not anymore. The apple fans are not going to be waiting 20 years for poop emojis.

Jordan-117• 2 years ago

Deep Philosophical Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybZ9PVcf6X8

gjjydfhgd2• 2 years ago

Very insightful take.

But the ad also caused me stress, and I own no Apple devices, nor am I a fan.

So there must be more.

thinkingemote2• 2 years ago

hmm, thinking quickly, two things.

Firstly the brand feelings exist even with people who don't own anything to do with the brand. Again with the cars, car adverts mainly seek to install sentiment in non car owners.

Secondly, I think the ad "as art" on it's own is disturbing and menacing.

XorNot• 2 years ago

I get how the creative team got here, but boy I'm surprised it aired: I would've thought you'd focus group something like this in the target market?

fshbbdssbbgdd• 2 years ago

Anyone know when was the last time Apple apologized for anything?

thrownaway561• 2 years ago

i don't get they need to apologize. I watched the ad and though it was very creative and the the squeezy ball at the end was funny. why is everyone getting so up in arms and offended by this? I guess this is our society now where people just look for things that they want to trigger and offend them.

bjornsing• 2 years ago

Feels hard to imagine Steve Jobs tweeting this video... I guess the lesson is: it’s very hard to preserve mission and vision without the visionary.

amatecha7• 2 years ago

I recently got a new iPhone. I'm picturing Steve Jobs yelling at this thing nearly every day. It's mind-blowing how poor the user experience has become compared to early versions of iOS! :\

xattt2• 2 years ago

“What the hell is this Vision Pro shit? Do people really want to be riding rollercoasters while they’re taking a crap?”

[1] https://www.cnet.com/tech/computing/jobs-dismissed-ipad-mini...

behnamoh2• 2 years ago

At some point the companies just want to milk their customers. Nokia did it, but where is Nokia now?

vundercind4• 2 years ago

iOS 6 was peak user interface, especially for non-computer-geeks. It was brilliant. It’s been downhill ever since.

vertis2• 2 years ago

Just load up a LLM with everything he ever wrote or said publicly and privately (◔_◔)

supriyo-biswas2• 2 years ago

I know your statement is sarcastic, but it's disturbing how common this sentiment actually is.

It assumes that humans are unchanging, inflexible automata whose actions can be predicted entirely by what they have said or done, let alone that it doesn't consider the fact that they may simply be a facade. In reality, it is their unstated framework of thinking that guides their speech and actions.

rvense4• 2 years ago

Eh, I only just realized that this idea is basically the character Dixie Flatline from Neuromancer.

TillE• 2 years ago

I know it's silly to say "Steve Jobs would never...", but Steve did earnestly love music, it was a huge part of his personality. I absolutely think he would have found this ad distasteful.

cess11• 2 years ago

Have they done outrage advertising to get reach before? How about expressing ads in YouTube genres, is that a new thing for Apple?

jaimex2• 2 years ago

It's been ages since I've clicked on The Verge. Surprised its still around.

ChildOfChaos• 2 years ago

This is all really silly. Don't people have anything better to get upset about? I wish companies/Apple didn't cave every time a couple of people start crying.

It must be really annoying to work in such industries, you spend a large amount of time making something and then have no idea if people will get upset about it or not.

swores• 2 years ago

Nothing to do with the industry - it's marketing, it's designed to make people like the company/product more, and the very nature of marketing and people means that if you do a bad job it can have the opposite effect.

This is just how marketing to humans is, and anyone creating a promo video for any type of product knows that the goal is to increase positive sentiment and the risk to try to avoid is increasing negative feelings instead.

23B12• 2 years ago

Marketing is a corporate behavior that is tied to sales, brand equity, expansion, product innovation, and financial performance. Criticizing it is as legitimate as criticizing accounting practices or device capabilities.

can16358p7• 2 years ago

This ad is a perfect example of the fact that if people want to get offended, they will literally get offended by anything: an ad, a color of something, a made-up pronoun not being present in a list, or anything else.

self_awareness4• 2 years ago

I think the ad is great and funny.

It says: you don't need those anymore. Just buy the iPad. Look at all this space you'll save. All the items you won't need to buy. Minimalism, utility, fun.

I think people who get offended by seeing objects being destroyed are being hyper-hypocritical, because I bet you all replace your phones every few years, replace your cars every few years, replace all of your stuff even if the older versions work fine. But here you get offended. Take a good look in the mirror is all I can say.

tiagod2• 2 years ago

We all know what the ad is supposedly saying. But there's something called context. This add doesn't exist in isolation.

In my view, is not offensive due to the destruction of the objects, but by the deeper meaning of crushing the cultural representations of human creativity with this machine.

self_awareness4• 2 years ago

The ad literaly presents a better way to express creativity (according to Apple). How would anyone can think it tries to crush it? I wouldn't use the word "deep" in your example, but rather "shallow".

Also, everything can be offensive if you dig deep enough.

And if you dig really deep, then even knowledge will start looking as only faith.

guappa7• 2 years ago

I bet you all replace

Yeah, AFTER they stop working, not when they are perfectly good :)

self_awareness4• 2 years ago

Still, most of it often still works, why not give it for repairs, instead of replacing it?

gizajob• 2 years ago

This would never have happened on Steve’s watch.

zython• 2 years ago

If you play it in reverse it works much better while simultaneously being more or less still the same commercial.

joduplessis• 2 years ago

I just found it a bit lacklustre & uninspired.

TonyTrapp• 2 years ago

Maybe it was all done on an iPad after they crushed all their creative tools?

advael• 2 years ago

I think Apple and many other tech companies are still trying to brand themselves as mavericks who are upending a stuffy establishment, a mythology which is exemplified well by ads like this. I think the gaucheness of it was very intentional, and exactly the kind of provocative boasting that appealed to a certain kind of young, counterculturally-inclined creative people when Apple was first running ads on TV

I think when you're a trillion dollar company, one of the major players in an industry that has very much become The Establishment, and are speaking to artists for whom technology companies - and Apple in particular - have been constantly "innovating" in ways to decrease their share of the fruits of their labor for the last twenty years, and the last 3 or so have been a constant news blitz of smug techbros claiming all creatives should accept whatever scraps they can get because they're about to be replaced by ML models that are from their perspective sophisticated stochastic plagiarism bots that seem to frame the entire premise of releasing your work online as the setup for a long con... Yea, maybe it's gonna read as a bit tonedeaf

tecleandor2• 2 years ago

They missed the opportunity of, instead of destroying everything, "compressing" it all in an iPad to show "all the things that you can fit inside that tiny device" or something like that. The destruction seemed pointless.

Hamuko7• 2 years ago

What? They are quite literally compressing those things in the video. And if you apply compressive force to a bunch of objects using a massive press, the objects would obviously get destroyed.

tonylemesmer• 2 years ago

I take tecleandor's comment to mean "metaphorically" compressing rather than actually doing it.

jprete5• 2 years ago

The metaphor is compression, the visual is crushing. An actual destructive action doesn't work as a metaphor for an imagined conserving action, the connotations of each are almost entirely at odds with each other. The best reason to do it is probably to make the audience deeply uncomfortable, which works if you're making a movie but is maybe not so good for ads.

Terretta3• 2 years ago

If you apply compressive force to a bunch of objects using a massive press, the objects would obviously get destroyed.

But in being destroyed turn into a diamond, and diamonds are forever?

planede• 2 years ago

It's obviously a lossy compression then.

kuschku• 2 years ago

Yeah, I would have done it kind of like a puzzle.

You show the frame of an ipad, without the insides or the glass on front. But it's actually giant.

A person playing a gameboy puts it into this frame. An artist puts their color pallette in, too. Many people come out, putting more and more into this frame.

A robotic arm puts a sheet of glass ontop of it, but you can still see the contents.

An animation plays from bottom to top, displaying the iPad UI and covering up the items previously visible. In the spots where the individual items were, the iPad UI shows matching apps now.

Same message, but without the disrespect.

Grimeton• 2 years ago

Apple a company, that:

- spies on you while telling you they protect your privacy

- removes feature after feature from their devices, telling you that you want this and that it's better w/o it for you

- locks you in more and more controlling every aspect from hardware to software to development environment and the store

- acts in bad faith every time someone threatens that fenced garden

And you people worry about an ad that just tries to justify why 50 bucks in hardware have to cost 1000+ dollars?

hoc2• 2 years ago

"The only problem with Apple..."

sunshinerag• 2 years ago

Who would you give as an example of taste. Microsoft?

hoc2• 2 years ago

Why Microsoft?

Belt holsters in future Apple keynotes just do not seem that impossible anymore.

(Phone holsters, of course.)

stuaxo• 2 years ago

Someone made a reversed version and it works well (it's the only version I've seen)... yeah, crushing musical instruments just comes across as needlessly destructive.

Mtinie3• 2 years ago

I had not considered that option, thank you for sharing that someone had.

Conceptually it makes a lot more sense in reverse.

“Look at every type of creative tool and instrument *contained* within this thin iPad” is inspiring.

“Look at how we’ve crushed all these creative tools and instruments” is decidedly not.

formerly_proven• 2 years ago

iPad rests on table. Kid/Teen/le artist sits down and touches the screen. iPad explodes into stage of “creative instruments”, le artist is le jamming. Cut to title card.

HPsquared• 2 years ago

Someone made a nice reversed version:

https://youtu.be/XYB6JJoDSuk

fetzu• 2 years ago

Yes, this version would have been so much more positive and I can picture someone pitching it during a meeting and just being shutdown because « you have to end with the product, not start with it. »

sourabhv• 2 years ago

Yeah the add shows off iPad as something more than it probably is. I don't like the destruction part but meh... to me the ad speaks nothing special or wow except the exploding paint buckets, which was fun. But there is nothing to apologize for. Its an ad, they are not coming into your home and breaking your piano and guitars, chill. Don't like it? Don't buy it.

iainmerrick2• 2 years ago

People aren't buying iPads (at least not as much as iPhones, Macs and Watches), that's exactly the problem (for them) that they're trying to solve.

g3z• 2 years ago

Maybe it's a sign that I am approaching 40s but who got offended by that, come on, it's just an ad

lionkor2• 2 years ago

I like it. You throw away all your hard-earned, expensive instruments, tools, and crush them to be sure. You then go buy an iPad, and the circle is complete: You're now a next-generation Apple consumer! Just turn on YouTube kids and watch slime videos for the rest of your life.

Reject culture, consume the slop.

xyst5• 2 years ago

Join the Apple ~~~jail~~~ ecosystem, or die.

baq• 2 years ago

Still less dystopian than the vision pro with a dad running around his kids with a walled-garden-camera-helmet.

Once may have been a mistake, twice means there's some psychopath marketing VP at the helm OR a joker trying to see far they can go before somebody actually watches ads they're doing before they go live.

amelius2• 2 years ago

Twice means this is really the company vision, not just a bad marketing officer.

k7sune• 2 years ago

“What’s a computer?” Should count as one too. But back then we just scoffed at the idea that an iPad can replace a computer. Now somehow we are offended or even terrified by the same absurdity that an iPad can replace a real musical instrument.

infecto• 2 years ago

"psychopath marketing VP" - how do you build such a narrative?

UncleMeat4• 2 years ago

I think there is a third option. Deliberate outrage.

People yelling at each other on twitter over your ad is free marketing. Tons of it.

TheJoeMan• 2 years ago

I was giving them the slight benefit of the doubt for that one, the VP can consume 3D photos and they hadn’t released the new iPhone that can take those photos, so it was more of a derived situation to get the plot to “you can rewatch rewarding 3D movies you took”.

I do agree the test marketing groups are not providing good feedback about secondary interpretations…

mc324• 2 years ago

Apple is too skittish.

There’s no reason to apologize. It’s taking the ‘crushing carbon into diamonds metaphor’ and using it for their product.

In the beginning it looks over the top, ‘ultra violent’, but then it becomes a metaphor for how they view their product.

Now, sure, it’s preposterous to think that this diamond of a thing can be as good as all the real objects it replaces, but that’s advertising.

achrono• 2 years ago

Even if so, that metaphor was not executed faithfully, and for a company like Apple that is bad.

But more so there is an unmistakeable 'destruction is cute' aspect to the ad that is uncalled for, that is what the reaction is toward.

hnaccount_rng3• 2 years ago

I don't know whether they have a reason to apologise or not. But... this ad is not doing what they wanted it to do. It's too heavy handed, it's too weak in its value proposition. It's just a bad ad. Compare it to the original introduction of the iPhone. Jobs just stated "we build a new phone, a new iPod and a new ?calendar?" [0] repeated that 5 times and asked "Do you get it?". The (implicit) statement was "you won't need any of those again". This message is what they aimed for with that ad. But instead of the (admittedly arrogant) prediction "YOU won't want any of those anymore", they went for "you can't use the other stuff anymore" [1]. And that just makes them look far, far weaker than e.g. the iPhone intro

[0] not sure about the last one [1] In German we'd say "alternativeless", which has a nice set of negative connotations nowadays

hydroreadsstuff2• 2 years ago

If that was the intend an animation that doesn't literally crush things would have worked much better. Let it fall into a black hole and let an iPad emerge or whatever. The dramatic effect of a hydraulic press adds nothing positive.

jasoneckert• 2 years ago

I thought Apple did a great job of providing an ad that makes a bold statement (which is the ultimate goal of advertising).

In other words, I think Apple crushed it (pun intended).

wrasee• 2 years ago

Did you watch the announcement event where on introducing the ad John Ternus made the same pun?

pquki47• 2 years ago

What's the bold statement? Throw away all those things, get an iPad instead which can "do everything" and is thinner?

I thought everyone could see the absurdity in there?

For me personally, crushing an upright piano is like Apple showing a middle finger to anyone who plays on a real piano.

bingbingbing7773• 2 years ago

Apple should go back to the ads where the bold statement is generic upbeat envato elements music and the only new feature in their new products: phone colors

the-grump• 2 years ago

We should be commending the honesty!

llm_trw5• 2 years ago

Reject culture, consume the slop.

Culture from the last 20 years has been the slop and the people complaining loudest here have been making the sloppiest slop of all.

wiseowise12• 2 years ago

Culture from the last 20 years has been the slop and the people complaining loudest here have been making the sloppiest slop of all.

10 years, I would say. It went downhill somewhere around 2015-2016, imo.

xd1936• 2 years ago

Don't forget to take your ibuprofen.

lionkor2• 2 years ago

Absolutely not, you can still go to theatres, concerts, etc. theres plenty of culture to be had

arnaudsm• 2 years ago

I bet they were about to release a behind the scenes video to brag how they did everything practically with no CGI

endisneigh• 2 years ago

Man, people get offended about everything these days.

7thpower• 2 years ago

Yes. I am questioning whether I have some emotional deficiency because I just don’t get why people are reading so far into it and, to me, it perfectly encapsulates how people are constantly looking for something to be offended by.

I thought the ad was bad, but for different reasons. The ads and presentation have become so over produced that it feels like some giant inside joke for a company that is out of touch. I think their culture has mostly become (or maybe always was) sniffing each others farts and telling them how great that last one was.

So I suppose it is somewhat ironic in the sense that I imagine their own leadership are the most likely to be offended by the symbolism in the first place.

Anyway I can’t wait for the M4 MacBooks. Take my money, Tim.

throwaheyy2• 2 years ago

Yes. I am questioning whether I have some emotional deficiency

Yeah, you probably do. Take a hobby or art form that you’re really passionate about and have spent a lot of time on. Something that when you’re doing it, all is right in the universe. Doing this activity your tools become an extension of yourself. They are valuable and beautiful things to you, and you become somewhat attached to them.

Now someone crushes these, your favourite tools and instruments and equipment, in a hydraulic press and says that an iPad can replace them.

If you still don’t see how this could be unsettling to someone who gets so much enjoyment and purpose out of them, and instead view this as looking for a reason to be offended, you probably have some sort of emotional deficiency. You could be autistic, or have psychopathic or sociopathic tendencies.

LASR• 2 years ago

Yeah what was that ad even.

I am not a creative. But I do play the piano from time to time. It’s an old 15 year old Roland electric piano. I wouldn’t like to see it crushed. Even if it is obsolete. I bet a lot of actual creatives do have sentimental values attached to their tools.

Destroying things needlessly is very much off brand for Apple.

benrutter2• 2 years ago

When I watch the trailer, it feels very cringe.

I can absolutely see what they're going for- something like "you're iPad contains the power of all these cultural tools", but visually that connection isn't there. It just looks like "Hooray! Culture has been destroyed, now there is only iPad!"

passion__desire4• 2 years ago

I took the message that all that culture is now available in an even slimmer form factor. This is the problem with art. Unambiguous messaging is impossible as one casts a wider net of interpretation

benrutter2• 2 years ago

Very true- I wonder if the prevailing interpretation would be different if this was 20 years ago. The destruction of all those tools would probably have a much more "punk rock" interpretation from people if Apple weren't the megacorp they are today.

flohofwoe• 2 years ago

This is the problem with art.

Sorry, but this polished piece of corporate messaging is anything but art. It's at best shiny kitsch.

ZoomZoomZoom7• 2 years ago

1. It's not a problem, it's the point.

2. It looks like you're implying the ad is somehow a piece of art. It's not, it's an ad.

bingbingbing7773• 2 years ago

It's not art, it's an advertisement.

hnaccount_rng3• 2 years ago

I think everybody agrees that that was the _intended_ message. But it's a forced transition. At the end of the ad there is _just_ an iPad. It's not as if the user has any choice now. And that makes the ad very weak. Why is Apple even going into the destruction business? They are supposed to be a creative (creating?) company, if it were an Lockheed Martin ad it would have fit ;)

mattnewton• 2 years ago

I think the mark of a good ad is that you can turn the music off and most people will get the message. The imagery of destroying the things is the problem, if you turn the music off you really don’t know how you are supposed to feel about this. Apple conveyed similar messages before with animations that did not destroy the underlying album arts, just shrunk them into an iPod. It would hit very different if they crushed a bunch of music paraphernalia people got a lot of enjoyment out of.

password543214• 2 years ago

That was obviously the point. It was about compression not destruction.

skywhopper4• 2 years ago

The ad clearly didn't communicate that message to a huge portion of its audience. There's plenty of us who can see the intent but still don't like the ad. There are so many other ways to communicate that message in a more effective way.

adverbly• 2 years ago

Agreed.

Its not Apple's style, but they could have opened the ad with some cringe fake scientists discussing how to shrink and/or combine and/or smush music, books, art, etc together. And then at the end show them excitedly rushing to the IPad as if they've solved everything.

mulmen11• 2 years ago

So an Aperture Labs reference? They could have Chell pick up the iPad and throw it at a screen of Cave Johnson’s motivational speech. Then it could bounce off without causing damage, showing how lightweight it is, and who it truly serves.

password543214• 2 years ago

I really hope you don't celebrate AI generators then because that is actually set out to destroy culture and tools.

chefkd2• 2 years ago

Where I'm from they said the phone was the devil it's a totally valid and human reaction to change. Change is almost always violent

whydid• 2 years ago

It has the vibe of something made by a team who have never created only for the pure love of art.

tsunamifury3• 2 years ago

Hahahaha you’ve never worked in ad creative have you? It’s full of people who have been crushed by their inability to support themselves making pure art.

This ad makes perfect sense from that perspective.

atmosx3• 2 years ago

Okay, Zappa is a bit defeatist although what he says is true, I don't think it's that bad... But here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88zvm7-fhKo (Frank Zappa on American culture)

jeremyjh• 2 years ago

Frankly it’s bizarre. He was a fantastic rock musician who seemed to forget where delta blues, jazz, bluegrass comes from. They drew on older traditions but were distinctly American culture. Maybe his point was really that it’s not popular culture but you can criticize any country’s pop culture.

edit: I'm surprised at the downvote. I'm a huge Zappa fan. I know that he was into many kinds of music. That is why I find it strange that he doesn't even consider the rich tradition of American folk music to be part of our culture.

So which is it, am I wrong that he was a great musician? Am I wrong about the rich tradition of American folk music? Am I wrong about pop culture in other countries? Is it because I didn't mention country music?

hi-v-rocknroll4• 2 years ago

American exceptionalism is easy to pick apart, and George Carlin would agree.

The point he's making was (c. 1970) that much of American culture's presumption of innate superiority post-WW2 was unfounded overconfidence demonstrating a lack of humility and intrinsic tempered confidence in relation to other rich traditions that also exist. It is also true that American culture was and is intrinsically hollow and shallow in many (but not all) dimensions not replicated in other parts of the world. And to be fair, Zappa was brilliant and a guitar virtuoso but a bit off in a way the 60's-70's counterculture celebrated profusely in a reactionary oppositional mirror of mainstream American culture. Growing up, my hippie nudist neighbors with their hydroponic weed and horrible tasting tomatoes would be all over everything Zappa. Incidentally, I have a signed Zappa KSJO sticker signed at a Campbell, CA venue and its newspaper clipping provenance... going to get it framed and probably sell it on FleaBay at some point.

hi-v-rocknroll4• 2 years ago

Double-edge sword with only one surface. Just don't get it wet, expect it to last over 7 years, expect your old accessories to work with it, or for it to actually substitute for the mastery of physical artistic crafts like Mehmet Girgiç is to felt.

underwater• 2 years ago

Beautiful, colourful, creative objects gathered together in a the middle of a grey room and destroyed to be replaced by a generic rectangle. This is like the 1984 ad with Apple as the bad guys.

neop1x• 2 years ago

Yes, they should somehow just compress them using CG without destroying them IMO.

gizmo6• 2 years ago

I don't understand the outrage. It's cgi, and very obvious cgi at that. The items bend and explode in an exaggerated cartoon fashion.

It's whimsical. No instruments have been destroyed. No actual paint has been spilled. We don't get mad at destruction in a pixar movie. We cheer when rock stars smash their actual guitars after a live performance. We don't live in a culture that abhors destruction.

Do people just not recognize CGI? Is that's what's happening here?

n1b0m• 2 years ago

It’s not about the CGI, but the sentiment it expresses. Hugh Grant summed it up well: “The destruction of the human experience. Courtesy of Silicon Valley.”

gizmo6• 2 years ago

But that's not what I see! What I see is a beautifully crafted CGI animation that passionate people worked super hard on. The ad is technically very well done and the music suits it perfectly. And the message is about tech as a product for creative expression as opposed to content consumption.

The ad isn't about destruction just because it features destruction. We don't apply this standard to movies, books, or any other creative work.

chrisweekly2• 2 years ago

We cheer when rock stars smash their actual guitars after a live performance.

speak for yourself. also, see the flurry of comments elsewhere in the thread about the irrelevance of CGI to the message being sent

gizmo6• 2 years ago

Audiences do, in fact, cheer when a rock star smashes his guitar.

And for me it does matter it's CGI. Because actual destruction is not the same as simulated destruction. Cartoon violence can be funny but real violence never is.

rocketvole• 2 years ago

The outrage is that supposed culture is being destroyed and turned into a soulless apple device. Apple implies that you can replace all the things with the ipad, which isn't true- you can't perfectly emulate a trumpet, for example. All in all a dystopian take

gr4vityWall• 2 years ago

I don't understand it either. I do creative writing, and it didn't shock me or made me feel bad. I thought the ad was meant to show what kind of CGI you could make with an iPad.

Workaccount24• 2 years ago

Having watched a whole bunch of hydraulic press content, it didn't stand out as particularly unreal. Books for instance violently explode when compressed.

wwilim• 2 years ago

If they had just replaced the crushing with CGI cartoonish squeezing and flattening, it would have been all good

croes• 2 years ago

The spot is a copy of a LG spot from 2008

https://twitter.com/asallen/status/1788428991118164356

mikewarot3• 2 years ago

Without Hanna and Lauri, you can't have a good hydraulic press moment.

It was obvious from the moment it started that it was CGI, so... no actual destruction occurred. Rewatching it, it seems rather random, like they wanted cinematographic moments, without any actual narrative. It was designed to be forgettable. Not a good use of marketing budget.

exodust• 2 years ago

Actual destruction isn't relevant. The idea of destroying musical instruments because a new iPad is in town, is jarring. The ad lingers on pointless destruction. Why not spend the time showing the new iPad? It's sad when advertising is stuck so far up its own clever-hole, it loses grip on reality.

Edit: I just watched it again. It's definitely not obvious CGI, not sure how you can say that. Camera lenses shattering, paint spilling, wood splintering realistically.

mikewarot3• 2 years ago

The press itself is ridiculous, you can't have two skinny cylinders like that pressing out a platen that wide and expect to get any reasonable forces. Maybe it's too much time watching the limitations of the 150 ton press, but it all just seemed like someone's idea of what a press is, instead of an actual press... in hyper-real cgi.

mikewarot3• 2 years ago

As I was saying... the press wasn't realistic.

Here's Lauri with his 300 Ton Press on the subject: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nk-zi8grFdw

zarzavat• 2 years ago

It certainly was not obvious to me that it’s CGI, I had to go back and check after reading your comment, and from what I’ve seen online most people think it’s real.

If their intention was to communicate that it’s CGI then that was an abject failure.

Havoc• 2 years ago

I do like that they did a simple apology. Most corporates these days will go out of their way with Weasley corporate speak to avoid saying as much

dguest2• 2 years ago

Did they pull the add?

hartator• 2 years ago

I think the part that was really upsetting is they crushed real good objects. After all of that talks about climate friendly. They could have crushed 3D renderings and up the clip with “rendered on iPad. No harm was done on real objects.” And that would have been a good ad.

FpUser4• 2 years ago

"And that would have been a good ad."

No it would not. It would still be as disgusting as it is now.

alt22711• 2 years ago

No it would not. It would still be as disgusting as it is now.

For me the disgust was purely in waste of perfectly good items. Those instruments could have provided a whole music department for a struggling school or youth center. The paint could have even been used to brighten the place up.

But No, Apple just squashed it all to show off.

yokoprime• 2 years ago

Why? I don’t understand how this ad triggers emotions beyond the waste of physical objects

Rinzler896• 2 years ago

I think the part that was really upsetting is they crushed real good objects. After all of that talks about climate friendly.

Considering how much global e-waste and environmental damage, companies like Apple(and others of their size) are responsible for with their products, destroying a few objects for an ad is like spitting in the ocean in the scheme of things.

People complaining about the waste generated from this ad, are really missing the big picture, and is one of the reason companies like Apple mostly focus on posturing the image of climate friendliness and environmental sustainability, rather than actually enforcing it across their entire supply chain where it actually makes the big difference.

"Sure, the minerals in our devices are mined by kids in Congo with chemicals dangerous for the environment, and assembled by workers in sweatshop factories with suicide nets, but our posh donut-shaped HQ in Cupertino runs on 100% renewables and serves only vegan food with soy lattes, that's how environmentally conscious we are here at Hooli." </gavin_belson.jpg>

^Because this greenwashing is what people buy into from advertising.

Reminds me when Formula 1 switched form V10 engines to hybrid V6 to be more "environmentally friendly", when actually, the gas burned by those V10 engines during races only accounted for <0,2% of the total emissions, being far offset by the massive emissions of transporting that entire circus around the planet bouncing across continents all year round, yet nobody addressed that, just the engines for some cheap greenwashing.

typeofhuman• 2 years ago

For real, if Apple actually cared about the environment they'd release new models every several years instead of several times yearly.

They'd allow you to upgrade the RAM in your MacBook instead having to replace the ENTIRE machine!

heresie-dabord• 2 years ago

destroying a few objects for an ad is like spitting in the ocean in the scheme of things.

I understand your point but the greater irony of the expression is that, at scale, our spitting (flushing, dumping, spewing) into the ocean has created an ecological disaster.

IshKebab3• 2 years ago

destroying a few objects for an ad is like spitting in the ocean in the scheme of things

Yeah I think the biggest lesson from this is that people don't understand the amount of resources it takes to build an iPad.

Another example: Apple removing the stickers because they're plastic. A tiny tiny bit of plastic. Probably 0.001% of the plastic used in the production of an Apple device but people think it's significant because they can see it, and all the other plastic is hidden behind closed doors.

rossant• 2 years ago

Honest question: how do we know for sure it's not CG?

IshKebab3• 2 years ago

I wondered that, but go and watch it. Absolutely no way anyone is modelling all that in CG. It's 100% not CG.

Also if it was CG Apple would have immediately said that.

LeifCarrotson2• 2 years ago

Economics. It's way cheaper to buy a few old instruments (buy extra in case you want to do multiple takes) and just record them being crushed than to pay a team computer artists for weeks to simulate the physics and draw this all in photorealistic CG.

pard682• 2 years ago

You do know what it takes to make lithium ion batteries right?

jayd164• 2 years ago

It's almost certainly mostly CGI but even if it was done with practical props, they are still not "real good objects." They are props. No one crashes real Ferraris in an action movie. You use fakes and empty chassis.

Hamuko7• 2 years ago

They do crash real cars in movies though. The Wolf of Wall Street saw an actual Lamborghini Countach with a VIN get crashed quite a lot, John Carpenter's Christine went through like twenty Plymouths and The Dukes of Hazzard TV series destroyed hundreds of cars ("an estimated 309 Chargers were used").

decafninja• 2 years ago

If it is CGI, then this outrage is stupid. There are a lot more important things to be outraged over than some virtual objects being crushed.

deadbabe• 2 years ago

The people who liked the ad tend to be the same kind of people who think AI art is cool.

anonzzzies• 2 years ago

Always wonder how blind these company people are? If they would've shown this (the plan/proposal of the marketing agency) to anyone, they would've said it's a bit... Strange?

thih93• 2 years ago

missed the mark

It didn’t! It is a good clip.

It accurately shows how tools are being replaced with digital and cloud. It’s a violent process and precious things get destroyed along the way. It totally hit the mark.

But true, it doesn’t make people want to go grab an ipad, so I get why they don’t want to use it.

alt22711• 2 years ago

It accurately shows how tools are being replaced with digital and cloud.

No it doesnt, it shows thats what Apple thinks which is the whole problem here.

pquki47• 2 years ago

It accurately shows how tools are being replaced with digital and cloud.

No it doesn't.

Throwing away all other sentiments, I really would like to see a 100lb digital piano replacing a 500lb upright piano while keeping its action, feel and sound, if not a grand piano. That hasn't happened yet, not even remotely, after all these years of technology advancenent. Anyone who is serious in learning and performing piano would be doing that on a real piano. And of course iPad isn't even in the conversation -- what can you do with a touch screen?

Which is exactly why I find this ad ridiculous.

Tarq0n2• 2 years ago

When world-class artists come to the NPR studio, a place with high end upright and grand pianos, to perform; many of them bring Nords Korgs or Rolands. Why do you think that is?

llm_trw5• 2 years ago

That hasn't happened yet, not even remotely

It has happened, you just can't afford the price tag of the digital replacement because close enough is good enough.

jader2015• 2 years ago

You’re talking about whether an iPad can accurately reproduce the quality of the original tools.

While I would certainly agree, like it or not, many of these things are being replaced by iPads/iPhones and other smart devices.

Many people used to carry around point and shoot cameras, calculators, watches, flashlights, etc. but those things are just short of completely depreciated.

Sure, this ad included things that aren’t quite as deprecated, but the trend is in that direction, and not away.

thih93• 2 years ago

I really would like to see a 100lb digital piano replacing a 500lb upright piano while keeping its action, feel and sound, if not a grand piano. That hasn't happened yet

It absolutely has. The sales of upright pianos are down, while sales of digital pianos are up. I'd call that replacing.

"Hybrid pianos have gained immense popularity among music lovers. These pianos are increasingly being used to provide keyboard lessons as they combine the electronic, mechanical and acoustic aspects of both acoustic and digital pianos. In addition, hybrid pianos take up limited space and can be easily moved due to their small size and lightness. In addition, these pianos require little maintenance. Temperature and humidity do not affect their configuration due to amplifiers and speakers. They can also be connected to digital interfaces, laptops, iPads and other devices. As a result, pianists are increasingly preferring hybrid pianos, prompting vendors to launch more innovative products that will boost market growth during the forecast period."

source: https://www.businessresearchinsights.com/market-reports/pian...

jader2015• 2 years ago

I really would like to see a 100lb digital piano replacing a 500lb upright piano while keeping its action, feel and sound, if not a grand piano.

I get the impression that you’ve not played a digital piano lately.

While purists will definitely not touch an electric, most casual players — and especially beginners — will be fine with, and are buying — and preferring! — a good electric piano over a grand or even uprights these days.

I wanted a grand myself for years, but couldn’t justify the cost or space consumption of a grand.

We’re now the happy owners of a Roland FP10, and it’s great! The sound, IMO is amazing, and about as close as an electric can get to the real thing.

rchaud7• 2 years ago

If anything, an ad like this is too real and lets slip the mask that is "Apple is for artists". Nope, Apple is for expanding the existing Apple-only ecosystem.

A classic arcade game experience is not going to be reproducible with a subscription to Apple Arcade. A stradivarius violin is not going to be replaced by Apple Logic Pro.

pilsetnieks• 2 years ago

To reduce the issue, "Let's burn books! It's ok because you can just buy them on the Apple Books Store for the iPad"

sneak5• 2 years ago

Burning books certainly doesn’t have the connotation it used to, given that the idea of a book is now mostly divorced from the physical implementation.

You could burn every physical copy of most recent books and no data would be lost; I assume most authors write with a word processor.

racl1013• 2 years ago

That would've be hilarious as parody of this commercial if the hydraulic press shot out flames too and burnt some books. Make that message even more ambiguous lol.

dehrmann2• 2 years ago

It's a good clip because people are here talking about it.

resource_waste• 2 years ago

This only applies to things that we don't have knowledge about. Everyone knows about iPads already.

When you are already familiar, this is just bad press.

But don't sweat it, according to chatGPT4, Apple is the best company at marketing of all time. They wont be losing for long.

Nicholas_C• 2 years ago

Agreed. This will be considered a huge win by Apple's marketing department. People (online at least) are talking about the iPad like I haven't seen in years.

dguest2• 2 years ago

I agree. This is a rare gift of truth and honesty in advertising.

You might not like what the industry is doing but don't kill the messenger: they just gave you a short glimpse behind the curtain. The company will keep the same goals even after they give their ad team sensitivity training.

hsyehbeidhh• 2 years ago

I did! It missed “their” mark. Because that’s not the mark they want to hit. It missed it so much that they are apologizing. So, yes, I did miss it!

If you move the mark, and replace this mark with your mark, then, whatever. Your answer will be always right if you change the question.

So, yes. It did miss the mark.

major5053• 2 years ago

People complain about anything this days...

Offtopic about the ipad, Im curious, does you guys use tablets like the ipad in anyway in your dayily lifes?

After phones seem to be getting bigger, I see no use for a dedicated device like an Ipad.

ErneX• 2 years ago

I do, I have an Air on my desk on a Logitech keyboard cover, it’s like a mini laptop where I do casual web browsing, access my piCorePlayer web UI to play music from my NAS or use Spotify/Apple Music to play tracks through the piCorePlayer. I also watch YouTube frequently on it.

major5053• 2 years ago

I used in the start, but since Im always using bluetooth headphones, It was a pain in the ass to change in wich device is connected.

thih93• 2 years ago

Note that your comment too could be seen as complaining - and you yourself say that you’re not the target audience.

I also don’t use an iPad after switching to a pro max phone. But ideally I’d like a smaller phone and an iPad mini; maybe next iteration.

xyst5• 2 years ago

No it’s a glorified iPhone in my opinion.

I had planned to use it to write code on the go but found it extremely limiting.

All of the power inside the tablet and it’s locked behind the Apple jail.

Have seen a few people use it as a laptop replacement though. They bring Bluetooth kb and mouse. But the experience seemed very janky to me. I asked to observe their experience and person was just web browsing lol.

major5053• 2 years ago

PRetty much. I have a Android Tablet. The only way I could use for work was to SSH into my server.

But using nvim all the time have its limitations. Sometimes you need an IDE.

So I just give up, and now is collecting dust.

kypro• 2 years ago

Could someone who feels passionately about this help me understand why?

In my eyes the ad was clearly trying to be playful and metaphoric. I feel like people are are taking the ad far too seriously and literally then jumping to the conclusion that it's implying a message that very obviously wasn't intended.

I'm not saying the ad couldn't have been better, but I can't understand the controversy here at all. Yet, I seem to be in a small minority.

Could someone explain specifically what it is that they find upsetting about the ad? And not just "they crushed real objects", but specifically why it is that you find that so troubling, etc? Objects get broken all the time for media for lesser purposes and with much less creativity. Is it the context here that is the problem?

Clubber5• 2 years ago

It's probably a manufactured outrage campaign.

freetime2• 2 years ago

I liked it, for the same reason I’ll occasionally watch videos on YouTube of things getting crushed in a hydraulic press. Morbid curiosity, I guess. It also looks like a decent amount of craftsmanship went into shooting and editing it. I would be curious to know how much was real vs. CGI.

I can understand how people could find it distasteful with its almost pornographic depiction of destruction. But still, it feels like people are almost going out of their way to get offended by this.

That being said, I think Apple is smart to apologize. It doesn’t cost them anything, it softens some of the negativity surrounding the story, and probably got the new iPads an extra day of coverage in the news cycle.

Clubber5• 2 years ago

But it feels like people are almost going out of their way to get offended by this.

After all the news about this, I finally watched it. I don't get why people are complaining. It's either a ploy by Apple marketing to get people to watch it, or manufactured outrage by news sites trying to get clicks.

What an artificial world we live in today.

TheOtherHobbes• 2 years ago

One of the tells of narcissism is love bombing followed by entitlement followed by covert and overt devaluation and antagonism.

Seems we're at the late stage now.

sph• 2 years ago

Jesus... this is not even worth to being called a 'first-world problem', yet this apparently seems to be an important issue to most of HN and "social media," judging by the comments herein.

I believe the apt suggestion is to go and "touch grass."

FpUser4• 2 years ago

BTW Dang, why am I flagged for submitting info about the same thing?

tokai• 2 years ago

It's othering to the extreme seeing people get so riled up by this. Some years ago the "kids in Africa could have eaten that inedible-object" meme was popular to make fun of people that gets angry about other people destroying or throwing away their own property. Guess we need to bring it back. If you get a strong emotional response to this ad your emotional priorities are seriously out of calibration.

epolanski3• 2 years ago

I really don't understand why the internet needs to turn everything into a stupid argument..

Who cares of an Apple ad...

zulban• 2 years ago

I wonder how much of the outrage is just manufactured by a marketing firm. I noted that mainstream outlets were writing about the outrage when the youtube clip had just 70,000 views.

epolanski3• 2 years ago

This as well.

This outrage made the ad seen 10 times more than it would've been otherwise.

madhato• 2 years ago

I honestly don't even feel like I live in the same world as the majority of commenters on the Internet anymore. To be outraged because apple crushed some stuff for an ad is a new low, or I guess a new high for fake hysterically.

can16358p7• 2 years ago

People want to get offended by literally everything, even a harmless ad. They just want to attack something.

steve19774• 2 years ago

"You‘ll see why 2024 will be even worse than '1984'"

raverbashing• 2 years ago

1984 "See why you need Apple to crush the boring industrialist vision"

2024 "Giant faceless industrial hoodrolic press goes brrrrr on art and creativity" (with apologies to HP Channel)

discopicante• 2 years ago

I'm wondering if this is a consequence of employing your own internal ad agency – maybe you are at risk of being out of touch with the audiences you are looking to reach.

Apple ads (created by TBWAChiatDay) used to be part of the Zeitgeist: 1984, Think Different, iPod silhouette, Mac vs. PC, etc. Now the only Apple ads that people talk about are the cringiest of the cringe: this iPad ad, the 'Mother Earth' bit from last year's iPhone/Watch keynote, etc.

icar• 2 years ago

I think this ad is exquisite. I wish people reacted this euphorically for more important things.

nbzso• 2 years ago

You cannot talk brand identity here. Most of the people here don't know what pays those big salaries. They think that clean code, scrum, pair programming, CI, CD are the critical points of a corporation.

Yes, I am arrogant. Because I read here from 2008, and I know some things. Apple is just too big of a corporation to be adequate anymore.

This ad is a total f*k up. Apple is build over the work and ideas of creative people. This is the direct result of nepotism in a corporate ladder and design by committee.

refurb• 2 years ago

This ad worked perfectly.

I never would have heard about it had people not gotten upset by it.

Apple "apologizes" then counts the money as it flows in.

readmemyrights• 2 years ago

The biggest thing that makes me wonder about this ad is: "why?". It certainly costed more to make than an average ad, regardless if it was CGI or real, it should be obvious to anybody who has ever itneracted with humans why crushing a bunch of instruments and tools they use would be a bad idea, all to get it mention more often thanks to society's backlash? Apple isn't some newcomer who needs all the attention they can get, every man, woman, child, dog and cat who can afford apple products has heard of them and I doubt hearing about the brand new iPad pro a million times more is going to change their decision to buy it or not. Most of their userbase is people up to their eyes in the apple ecosystem, all they have to do is send a push notification about the newest iProduct, initiate the planned obsolescence procedure, and watch the cash pour in, the rest would just need to see an ad about the amazing new health app or whatever with a suttel subtext of "and if you don't buy this you're a poor low-status chump lol". But again, I don't run a trillion+ dollar tech company so what do I know?

This also reminds me of those 4chan pranks where they tell people that the new software update made the iPhone waterproof or they can charge it by putting it in a microwave. This time they wouldn't even have to make fake ads: "look, apple said new iPad can't be crushed, post a tiktok of yourself stomping your iPad nothing can go wrong!" (disclaimer: the previous text in quotes is in quotes for a reason; don't do that to any of your devices. There's no warranty to the extent permitted by law, etc etc).

fullshark2• 2 years ago

1. Conveys the idea that the ipad has all these creative / cultural digital services on it

2. Conveys the idea that it's thinner than ever

3. Seeing stuff get destroyed by a hydraulic press is attention grabbing, and gets you to look at the TV during that commercial break.

I get why they did it, it's striking. They just didn't understand just how massive the freakout in the creative arts industry is right now over technology companies, and why it would cause a backlash.

marcosdumay5• 2 years ago

On #1, people were very well aware of it already. All this ad does is making them reconsider the company's intent and see it as an enemy trying to destroy the services, instead of a friend making them easier to get.

On #2, it doesn't do that very well. For a start, the press never smashes the tablet itself.

This commercial is very well done with the purpose of making people revolt. Every element is perfect. I wonder if there was some miscommunication and the authors expected the scenes to be used in a different way.

bilsbie• 2 years ago

They should have just run the video in reverse and it would have gotten the same point across and been a lot rosier.

keepamovin3• 2 years ago

They have apologized! Send them to re-education!!! Cancel the execution.

mindwok6• 2 years ago

It’s not my place to tell anyone how they should feel about anything, but the number of comments here suggesting people had a strong emotional reaction to this does kinda worry me. How do those of you who feel so strongly about this ad get through daily life? If I was feeling so upset about something like this, life would be pretty bad. Genuine question.

EDIT: I appreciate the amount of good-faith discussion on this comment. To be clear, if your reaction to the ad was along the lines of ‘this is distasteful and I don’t like it’, I totally get that. I’m referring to some of the comments I saw that likened it to ‘stress inducing’ or ‘like watching someone’s arm get cut off’ which are much more emotive.

thinkingtoilet• 2 years ago

I agree. This a the quote from the article, someone called it the "destruction of human experience". We have to be a little bit tougher than this, right?

red_trumpet• 2 years ago

I agree that one can see the ad as depicting "destruction of human experience". This does not mean that my day is ruined after viewing the ad. Disliking the ad and calling it what it is does not mean one is not tough.

waynesonfire2• 2 years ago

and i'm shocked that your response is to tell people to man up cry babies. maybe try reflecting why there was a reaction to the ad from a human experience perspective. there is a reason apple appologized instead of telling them to man up as you're suggesting.

financltravsty• 2 years ago

I don't feel anything from the ad, but if you're numb to a pointed reminder of the towering tetragrammaton that ushered in perhaps the most anti-human technology we have seen (phones), then perhaps you need to be a little more open to experiencing the rawness of life.

There's no strength in disassociating from the ills of the world. Useful in short bursts, but as a default state I would say is a problem.

Now that doesn't mean the other side -- the histrionics -- are "right," but there is a balance to be found here.

gregd3• 2 years ago

I don't think this is so much about this ONE ad but rather, it contributes to the overall feeling that real connections, like art, music, and architecture, are being lost daily. Music programs are constantly being cut. Architects can't find work. Woodworkers can't make a living making custom furniture. Sam Ash music stores are shuttering ALL their locations.

Everything has been commodified.

And Apple just piled on.

UncleMeat4• 2 years ago

If you dig through twitter, you can find somebody saying something dramatic about basically everything. It might be hyperbole to communicate a feeling. It might be somebody who is legitimately unwell and reacts unreasonably strongly to people. It might be somebody faking it.

You can be almost certain that people using this language don't expect to be aggregated into news articles and then be used as evidence that the world is getting too soft.

Bluestrike2• 2 years ago

I can read "the destruction of human experience" two ways. One, it's a just a descriptive label of the symbolism the act of crushing creative instruments/tools/materials represents, even if that symbolism is clearly not something the creators ever intended. Two, is the more hyperbolic--or perhaps even hysteric--you're literally destroying the human experience and it's hurting me emotionally take. A lot of the commentary on social media is probably closer to the former, but it doesn't discount the latter.

It's pretty obvious what marketing intended. You take a bunch of creative instruments/tools/materials, squish them inside the iPad, and you get to carry them with you with your iPad. Heck, I'm almost certain it's been done before as a cartoon gag: everything gets sucked into one super tool. There's probably an old Looney Tunes episode with something close enough--maybe stuffing books inside someone's head to teach them the material--to make my point.

In any case, the metaphor's pretty clear; unfortunately, the Crush ad completely botches it. There's no mechanism by which the props 'enter' the iPad. Instead, you just see wanton destruction, the hydraulic press lifts up, and then there's an iPad sitting on a giant chunk of steel. Paint is dripping down the side, but the press itself is oddly sterile. The mess? The parts? The paint? All gone on the press except for what's left on the floor. And if it's smashed into itty bitty bits, even if it's now metaphorically "inside" the iPad, what's the point? Did the press somehow squeeze out some metaphysical meaning from the tools that got sucked into the iPad? Now throw in some of the angst about the possibility of generative AI replacing some creative jobs.

If the idea is that an iPad will 'replace' those tools--or more likely, just let the user take them with you wherever they go--there's an implicit assumption that the user values those tools and would like them so close at hand. So literally destroying tools that, for many artists and creatives, are objects of affection closely tied to memories that are critical parts of their self-conception, is an absurd kind of symbolism that would have never made it off the drawing board under Jobs. People tend to respect their tools, and filming their meaningless destruction is going to rub people the wrong way even though it really has no actual impact. Especially with an ad that's simultaneously trying to get you to buy the product they were symbolically destroyed to revel.

Will Crush turn many people off from buying a new iPad when they need one? Almost certainly not. But it does underscore that Apple's changed as as a company. Apple users--myself included--might still love the products they buy, but it doesn't seem like they're in love with them like it once seemed (for way too many of their users).

buro9• 2 years ago

How do those of you who feel so strongly about this ad get through daily life?

Whilst I didn't feel a great deal watching the video, this statement is very presumptive.

Reversed: How does one get through daily life _not_ feeling so strongly about things?

Should perhaps we, those who didn't feel a great deal here, not reflect on whether we might be feeling as much of life as we could, empathise more deeply, care about broader things, consider life as more than ration or reason?

It didn't bother me one way or another, but I also didn't assume anything. I can imagine a life far more rich just by feeling more, seeing more colours in the same palette, tasting more when eating food, and feeling so much more when just experiencing life... perhaps for all the benefit of feeling more, there's just the sharper edge that sometimes you feel more about something like an Apple advert.

llm_trw5• 2 years ago

How does one get through daily life _not_ feeling so strongly about things?

I feel strongly about important things, not all things.

latexr3• 2 years ago

Reversed: How does one get through daily life _not_ feeling so strongly about things?

You didn’t reverse the question. No one is advocating not having strong feelings about anything. The correct reverse would be “how do those of you who don’t feel strongly about this ad get through daily life?”.

The answer to that is “by not entering a state of frenzied stress about every inconsequential thing and being mindful of the battles worth fighting”. There is a finite amount of things you can feel strongly for in your life, and I do think this ad is incredibly minor.

No one is going to remember or talk about this in a week, regardless of if Apple had apologised or not. If only we could’ve had all this outrage and media attention about something which truly matters and is urgent to all humans (like, say, climate change) that would’ve been swell. Now that would’ve been empathetic, shown a care about broader things, and be considerate of life.

bsaul• 2 years ago

Strong emotional reaction to anything is pretty much the norm nowadays.

However, i feel like apple's ad made people visualize a true deep concern about the future of art (and humanity) with regards to the recent advancements of AI. The fact that the number 1 consumer hardware company in the world blatantly acknowledge the fact that computers are going to generate every piece of content automatically in the future is quite troubling. (of course, that's probably not exactly what they meant, as someone will have to push that "generate" button on the ipad, at some point).

frereubu2• 2 years ago

I think this is it. Imagine if instead there was a "siphon" effect where the instruments get miniaturised / sucked into the iPad. I don't think anyone would have been upset by that. It's the crushing that's at issue, and it does touch on an anxiety around the digital experience crushing the life out of the more physical / personal engagement with music.

foobar_______• 2 years ago

You help me feel sane. People, it is a commercial. Nothing more. Don't get your panties in a bundle. If you don't like it, change the channel, don't buy their product, go outside on a hike. The things people get upset about today is fascinating. GO OUTSIDE

alt22711• 2 years ago

Sounds like you are getting your panties in a bundle about other people getting their panties in a bundle. Why do you care so much what other random people on the internet think?

Maybe it is you who needs to go outside and stop reading these comments which make you feel 'insane'?

dwallin2• 2 years ago

Why get so bothered by other people being upset? Apple is going to be fine, you don’t need to worry on their behalf. No need to get your undergarments of choice in a twist. Good opportunity to step outside and get some fresh air.

wiseowise12• 2 years ago

People exercise their God given right, why do you care so much about it?

hooverd• 2 years ago

Getting emotional are we?

faitswulff• 2 years ago

Even if you disagree, I would think that the volume or strength of the comments would teach you something about the situation. Instead, it’s the children who are wrong.

mindwok6• 2 years ago

I explicitly said I’m not saying it’s wrong. Im asking if the emotional sensitivity to these things impacts them in daily life.

cultofmetatron• 2 years ago

no kidding. there's a bunch of stuff going on in teh world (some of which risk getting me downvoted if I mention them) that are way more distressing. its not like they destroyed anything truly sacred or one of a kind.

PedroBatista• 2 years ago

We are in a age where most interactions are supercharged with melodramatic theatrics.

Not to dunk too much on the artistic community, but when it comes to these 4 day dramas all the over the top adjectives are applied. Very eloquent but the feelings most of the time aren't even real. It's a performance.

deaddodo2• 2 years ago

Not to mention, and this is something I have to explain to my European friends all the time when they get all of their information on the US from it's media, Americans speak in hyperbole all the time. It's how they talk to each other ("omg, you're my best friend", "I almost died", "That's the biggest tower I've ever seen", "People are literally dying on the streets due to private healthcare", etc), so if you read it without the context you would think this ad is the worst thing in the world.

UncleMeat4• 2 years ago

I'm not even sure that this is true. How many people have actually interacted with somebody who is overreacting here?

Instead, the overreactions are aggregated via social media and news coverage so we can see "wow look at all these people using extreme language here."

justaman• 2 years ago

Manufactured outrage. Designed to entice clickbait farmers to spread the word. Gone are the days of blasting millions into a TV ad. No new age ad gets that attention anymore. Instead, the idea is to go viral.

shakiXBT• 2 years ago

It seemed like a fun ad to me and that was it.

People have to go through mental gymnastics to justify being angry at it, but do they feel the same way when these objects get destroyed in movies?

waynesonfire2• 2 years ago

no, because the ad is very deliberate about what it's trying to represent. The intention is to suggest that physical tools that have been used for thousansd of years to create culture, art, and technonolgy and that themselves are art, are gabrage. the ad suggests an apple computer that is bound by limits of it's software and harware, that cannot be further refined, cannot be repaired, and severs the human senses from experiencing the tools it claims to deprecate, is superior. it's a bad message.

they may as well have smashing the statue of david and shown that the mac's default background is a picture of it.

and because someone has a negative reaction to an ad doesn't imply they got "angry" over it or need tougher skin or are somehome so sensitive they can't function in society. it's being able to reflect how something is making you feel. and it feels like a shitty ad on many levels.

wiseowise12• 2 years ago

People have to go through mental gymnastics to justify being angry at it, but do they feel the same way when these objects get destroyed in movies?

Context matters. Here it looks like it's a zero-sum: iPad is crushing everything else.

cjk22• 2 years ago

I’m get the feeling some people are pretty bored and boring and collective outrage is an emotional release in some way.

gsich• 2 years ago

Staged outrage.

la_oveja• 2 years ago

i can dislike the ad or even find it repugnant, and the moment it ends still be on with my life. last time i checked having opinions on things was not frowned upon.

madeofpalk• 2 years ago

It's possible to have a negative reaction to something, but otherwise be fine. I don't think there's many people sobbing uncontrollably on the subway because they saw this ad.

All sorts of media - whether movies or books or games or ads - are designed to make some kind of reaction in the audience. Dismissing "I don't like this" as a valid reaction is also dismissing "I like this", which seems silly.

mindwok6• 2 years ago

I’m not dismissing it, I’m just curious about it. For me, if I was having strong negative reactions to things frequently it would impact my wellbeing. I wonder if thats not the case for these folks.

hydroreadsstuff2• 2 years ago

I can tell you that I watched the recording, cringed for a few seconds and skipped it, and moved on with my life. After the outrage, revisiting my 3 seconds of feelings, I tend to agree that destroying nice things isn't a great thing to do in an ad.

ornornor3• 2 years ago

What bothers me the most is the casual destruction of perfectly functional, expensive (for some) items. It’s glorifying waste, and I’m sure there are individuals or families that would kill for the chance to get a piano, a trumpet, or the insanely overpriced Macs they can’t afford, while Apple is crushing them just to sell us more ewaste (seeing how apple in particular is at the forefront of anti repair)…

Tarq0n2• 2 years ago

Now think of how much of these items the budget of any given commercial could pay for.

Focusing on just the literal few in view in front of you is missing the forest for the trees.

uxp100• 2 years ago

Nah, you basically can’t give pianos away.

dwallin2• 2 years ago

The WHOLE point of the ad in the first place was to make people feel strong positive emotions toward Apple products. It turns out they misjudged and for many people it didn’t evoke the type of emotions they thought it would. It’s not like people are up in arms about a spec sheet.

I think you are being extremely irrational in expecting people to not feel passionately about random things. Companies spend insane amounts of money influencing consumer sentiment for good reasons.

__rito__4• 2 years ago

Nah, it's not exactly like that.

I get through regular life okay, but this a $1T company with hundreds of billions in cash, profit driven, using child labor in China indirectly, and engaging in walled-garden policies makes it worse.

They make all these gadgets that replaces incomes from many manufactures and puts it on a single hand. That's bad enough.

Now, they destroy all these beautiful things- a piano, a guitar, a camera, and a lot of valuable things to make a point that this single silicon-made, soulless corporate company-produced, cheap exploited labor induced thing is going to replace them. Those things of aesthetics and soul are destroyed to give rise to this thing.

That hits hard for me. Seriously. I thought that I was being a real snowflake when this ad made me uncomfortable, but was glad to see this backlash in large numbers. Maybe people still have souls.

You can give a thousand lessons in "nature of real circumstances and geopolitics", and this ad with all its backstory will still be wrong to me.

mindwok6• 2 years ago

Thanks, this for me is the best articulation for why someone might feel so strongly.

jhbadger2• 2 years ago

Except what are pianos, guitars, cameras etc.? Also products made by companies that are equally "soulless" (they make these things to make money just like Apple). And in terms of aesthetics you can think technological products are just as beautiful as those other products. I personally get angry when I see things like classic Macintoshes turned into fish aquariums and the like, as I see it as beautiful technology destroyed, but even so not that angry.

niek_pas• 2 years ago

Maybe people still have souls.

What exactly are you trying to achieve with this sentence?

cranium• 2 years ago

I would add that the atmosphere really feels dystopian – kind of a soul-less machine (crusher in a warehouse) vs symbols of human creativity. Despite the music, it's not a light and fun representation.

moralestapia6• 2 years ago

Yeah ok, do you carry a smartphone with you?

Or do you carry a bag with a camera, a dumb phone, a notepad w/ pens and markers, books, an mp3 player, a pedometer, a measuring tape, ...

No one's forcing you to buy the former, so, why don't you do the latter?

pera• 2 years ago

Maybe people still have souls

I agree with everything you say except for this part: not having an emotional reaction to the destruction of objects doesn't imply you don't have a soul (whatever that means to you). Not everybody had the opportunity in life to learn to play an instrument or make art, and I can see how for people like this a music instrument is not more sentimental than, say, a hammer.

Maybe you should feel good about feeling bad after watching that ad: it means you had the chance to experience the beauty of creating art.

rib3ye• 2 years ago

Actual number is $26B in cash

source: 2023 10k

sanderjd2• 2 years ago

I mean, they obviously didn't execute it well, since so many people had this kind of reaction to it, but the point seemed to me to be that all those "things of aesthetics and soul" are smushed into this one very thin thing, not that they are destroyed.

But sure, I can see why people don't like it.

sheepscreek• 2 years ago

I think you got very close to the real issue.

One aspect could bae related the affordability of things. Imagine that beautiful grand piano - how many would have dreamt of owning one in their homes but can’t. Because:

a) they are expensive

b) need a lot of space (so you need to have a big home to begin with)

Seeing a lot of new things being destroyed, along with the stress all emoji’s eyes popping out, was a bit much.

culopatin8• 2 years ago

Why does Apple destroying things outrage worthy but Hollywood destroying many more things (in my head for example many classic cars) for a shot, not? Is it because one is entertaining and one is not?

bitexploder• 2 years ago

I feel this is a highly romantic and nostalgic view of objects humans make. Calling them “beautiful” vs “this thing”. I know this is all subjective, but what makes a piano more soulful than an iPhone? This is a genuinely curious exploration of the emotions involved here.

8338550bff96• 2 years ago

Snowflakes are normally found en mass

haswell10• 2 years ago

I strongly disliked the ad. I also get through my days just fine. I don’t understand the insinuation that people who disliked it must be somehow unable to navigate daily life.

Here’s why I disliked it: I’m one of those people who finds themselves concerned and sometimes sad at the erosion of the humanity in art. Social media and AI are changing the nature of artistic expression in a way that often feels destructive. I’ve started to intentionally unplug and use devices less in order to stay connected to what I see as the good stuff in life.

To me, this ad is the culmination of what I dislike about tech.

If they had played the ad in reverse, I think I’d have really liked it. iPad as a tool for expression. Instead, it’s presented as a tool that supersedes expression. I suspect Apple was trying to communicate the former.

Edit to respond to the edit: highly sensitive people who have visceral reactions to stuff like this are canaries in the coal mine. We need them just as much as we need substantive discussion here. Some of the backlash also originated in Japan, where culturally this was quite offensive.

tkgally• 2 years ago

I strongly disliked the ad. I also get through my days just fine.

Same here. And besides disliking the ad myself, I imagined that many other people would dislike it too. I also wondered how on earth it could have gotten the go sign within Apple. From the outside, at least, Apple looks like the epitome of a cautious, deliberate company. I would have thought there would have been plenty of stages in the approval process where it would have been shot down.

gregd3• 2 years ago

This! Music programs throughout the US, are getting cut. AI has fundamentally (and not in a good way) changed the artistic landscape in ways that we cannot recover from. My soon to be high school graduate daughter, was so looking forward to pursuing her artistic passions in college, and now is taking a gap year to really understand if that is something she still thinks she can make a living at.

sanderjd2• 2 years ago

Such a good point that having things come out of an ipad would have been the effective way to portray the same point they are trying to make.

jvolkman• 2 years ago

Someone "fixed" the ad by reversing it, and the result is much better.

https://twitter.com/rezawrecktion/status/1788211832936861950

conartist6• 2 years ago

I doubt you'd feel incensed unless you felt like you were also in the hydraulic press. Goodness, there's not any technology that would make artists as useless as their instruments and tools, is there? That would make this ad really relevant.

fhd2• 2 years ago

I don't care about Apple, so I don't care about the ad. It lowers my (already pretty low) opinion of them, but that's about it.

If this kind of thing was done by a company I'm a huge supporter of, sunk a lot of money into, one I personally promoted to my friends and family and one that was part of my personal and professional identity in some way, it might be very upsetting. I might feel betrayed.

Personally I don't get invested in companies or products like that. Maybe you don't either. The emotional reaction makes sense if there's high emotional investment. Whether the emotional investment is rational is an entirely different question.

Const-me• 2 years ago

I don’t have particularly strong emotional reaction, but IMO the ad is horrible.

Destroying functional stuff with a hydraulic press is a waste of planet’s resources.

Destroying musical instruments, sculptures and other cultural artifacts is not too far from burning books, it’s barbaric.

Finally, I believe the ad is misleading because the ipad not gonna survive the press either. It’s just a consumer electronic device which doesn’t even have IP68 water protection.

dartos2• 2 years ago

Finally, I believe the ad is misleading because the ipad

The real issue with the ad that nobody is talking about.

False advertising

anonymouse008• 2 years ago

Apple’s marketing tells us who they are proud to be. As someone who attempts to defend the AppStore fees and process as valuable, seeing this makes me question if Apple has gotten “too cool” to be a good steward.

So, while it may not feel like it to you, from those who have invested in the brand this is a betrayal and a real emotion.

Oh, and I get through the day just fine. It just reminds me to never relent on my values.

r0fl• 2 years ago

A subsection of society has too much free time and few (what people in developing countries would call) real problems.

So they get triggered by mundane things and tweet prayer hands for every news headline that hits the 24 hour news cycle

sandworm101• 2 years ago

> people had a strong emotional reaction to this does kinda worry me.

It is more than the ad. Apple is a cornerstone of many people's lives. Their online existence, the bulk of their personhood these days, flows through apple systems. Apple is basically a quazi-partner. Such people feel they must react defensively, which is the root of fanboy culture. Such people therefore get very worried when they see unequivocal mistakes. A fanboy will then turn quickly, joining the anti crowd in an effort to correct the mistake asap. As soon as apple make sufficient recompense, they will return to the defensive. (See every mistake ever made by a K-pop star.)

cm2012• 2 years ago

A lot of people don't like the idea of destroying physical things, it makes them feel ick.

Same reason people tend to hoard too much shit.

culopatin8• 2 years ago

People are concerned about waste forget that once the item is produced, it’s already waste. Just because it’s in their definition of “worth it” doesn’t mean it’s not going to end up in a landfill in the near future.

mc324• 2 years ago

I think the problem is that people are too ‘connected’ emotionally with products or companies (that speaks to their effective advertising) so when a company’s pubic personae diverge from their own view, they become like the abusive partner in a relationship that doesn’t allow any daylight between themselves and this other entity. They feel betrayal.

I think they invest too much emotion into inanimate things.

boesboes• 2 years ago

tbf, I've always found apple commercials cringy af. And I can understand a bit of a visceral reaction to the message, but I don't see such over-the-topness with other crap such as AI content spam, music etc.

But the response seems outsized. it just seems like bullshit. I think most of these reactions are not genuine, just all aboard the rage-train!

Or maybe they are all just jealous because they can't afford apple products ;-)

gregd3• 2 years ago

One more opinion in the mix. I grew up in extreme poverty as a child who also happened to have a keen interest in music. I could never develop this keen interest because of course, the cost of instruments was too much for my mom to handle.

That same kid also got to watch Pete Townsend (and others) get superstar status, while breaking instruments during a performance. It was heartbreaking to me that he didn't just donate those instruments to disadvantaged kids and still bothers me today.

So, while I understand the intention of the ad, when you couple that, with Apple products being too pricey for a lot of people, yeah, it bothered me.

jajko• 2 years ago

Well, I gave it a go and saw it, just fyi I get through my life just fine and one of those seemingly few folks without childhood/mental issues with good life so far and amazing small kids. No apple products owner, wife has mini 13 and she is not happy with it.

Its not the worst ad by any means, I am used to seeing russians blown to pieces in ukraine at this point, but the arrogance man, stemming from first frame was a bit over the top even for me and left bitter taste of it all when intentions were opposite. How this passed all the managerial reviews is beyond me. Actually I get it - they all thought its fine, which also tells you something.

Not shocking in any way, to me apple is subtly arrogant for many years and the main reason for me going to (more expensive but way more open) competition. That and consistently fanatical uncritical apple crowd, also visible here.

127• 2 years ago

I think their emotions are valid, even if you're dismissive of them.

viraptor• 2 years ago

I think there's a weird false equivalency being often mentioned with this topic. Yes, I'd say this ad was stress inducing for me. But that doesn't mean I have issues getting through the day. It's not some kind of weakness that makes my life worse because I feel things. I can see something and be stressed or disgusted about it and then move on and feel happy about things that are nice. Feeling things doesn't need to force you to do anything. It's fine to just experience them, and maybe act on them if needed. But the idea that those feelings somehow have to take over your life is misguided.

asoneth• 2 years ago

I have strong positive and negative emotional reactions to things on a daily basis -- I sometimes tear up reading books to my children, have emotional responses to songs, that sort of thing.

As I watched the video I found the destruction beautiful and heartbreaking. If it had been used as an artistic commentary on, oh I don't know, our underappreciation of good tools, the undermining of art under fascism, the dumbing-down and compression of culture under capitalism, etc that would have been interesting.

But the reveal at the end is that the force destroying all these artistic tools is none other than one of the world's richest companies using the spectacle to hawk their latest must-have gewgaw. And the delicious irony of Apple unintentionally positioning itself as the unstoppable, soulless destroyer of art and culture is just chef's kiss perfection. I'm honestly sad they pulled the ad.

But to your question, I haven't noticed any impact of strong emotions on a daily basis except that I get overly excited sometimes when talking about things and have to bring a tissue to movies. I'm similarly curious what it's like for people who don't really have emotional reactions to things. I work with folks like this, and I am curious. Do they feel things when they look at art, listen to music, read literature, look at photos, or is it just sort of background ambiance? When evaluating art do they plot perfection on the horizontal of a graph and importance on the vertical to yield the measure of its greatness?

allturtles• 2 years ago

I have strong positive and negative emotional reactions to things on a daily basis -- I sometimes tear up reading books to my children, have emotional responses to songs, that sort of thing.

I can still get a bit misty-eyed just thinking about reading "Love You Forever" or "Guess How Much I Love You", and my kids outgrew those books years ago.

Dalewyn• 2 years ago

I'd wager these are just snowflakes, but there are so many people that snowflakes still amount to a significant amount even if they are nonetheless a minority.

The internet also serves to amplify their noise.

Boogie_Man2• 2 years ago

Hyperbolic internet rhetoric has resulted in the need to phrase everything as if you're a psych ward patient who cries when it rains because the sky is sad. If everything is a pitched battle between good and evil, anything less than screaming and beating your chest is weakness in the face of existential threats. The squeaky wheel gets the grease so everyone is squealing as loud as they can. Textual histrionics from people laying on their couch or sitting on the toilet staring at a little screen.

It's the same as typing "ROFL LMAO" when you actually just lightly exhaled through your nose.

It's infantile and distracts from "meaningful discourse". They're allowing themselves to be seriously psychologically manipulated (or are playacting along with it), but it just happens to be in a negative way this time.

johnchristopher• 2 years ago

Had to scroll through 30 replies to find the word hyperbole :).

medellin• 2 years ago

I think this is part of the issue. I really dont want to have the discussion because im sick of trying to understand how everyone is mad about everything. At a certain point it’s mentally draining for me just so people can feel morally superior because they are more PC than you.

Im done with it and a lot of others are also.

joelrunyon• 2 years ago

I got annoyed with it, then went and fixed it in 5 minutes and went on with my day - https://twitter.com/joelrunyon/status/1788312003670360320

jrm4• 2 years ago

Honestly, y'all, it's beyond hilarious that the top comment here on Hacker News is

"These things you people have, these ...feelings...these are strange and you seem weak. Boop beep boop."

Sometimes the stereotypes aren't wrong, huh.

CatWChainsaw5• 2 years ago

That's why there's so many comments responding to this callout that are, dare I say, defensive.

mattmaroon• 2 years ago

My honest thought when I see this sort of reaction is that you know life is good because if it weren’t, people wouldn’t have the emotional energy to waste on something like this.

Retr0id• 2 years ago

I'm more concerned for the people who feel nothing. Being desensitized isn't a virtue. The marketing strategy of one of the largest companies in the world is not a triviality.

If someone's reaction was literally debilitating, sure, that's probably pathological, but I don't think there's anything wrong with feeling strongly about something like this, especially when such advertising is specifically engineered to evoke an emotional response.

2OEH8eoCRo02• 2 years ago

I don't like any of their stupid ads but I'm not harmed by them and I don't need an apology.

1-6• 2 years ago

I think words may only convey a certain level of thought but cannot convey intensity well.

2OEH8eoCRo02• 2 years ago

Nailed it. I think it's also concerning that Apple and other companies cave and apologize for the most inane minutiae.

spamizbad• 2 years ago

Let's not fall into the trap of assuming you can't have a feeling if you don't speak it into existence. People stating their feelings are actually doing Apple a big favor. The alternative is nobody says anything but keeps their feelings bottled up and simply walk around with a negative opinion of Apple because of the advertisement.

smokinjoe• 2 years ago

I think it's this unconscious desire to share strong opinions about any large enough bit of news. While I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing to have personable opinions about anything large or small - I've noticed more and more that people just need to satiate this hunger to share it.

And it's typically devoid of any nuance, it's shallow, quick, and distilled down into this form that begs people to react.

I see it mostly on reddit on posts that have hundreds to one or two thousand comments where 50% of the replies have almost the identical opinion. Everyone has this need to share it, even if it isn't nearly that original.

There's probably some societal change that someone significantly smarter than I can speak to, but this whole "digital town square" approach has kinda turned into a maelstrom of the most toxic opinions that people probably don't hold _that strongly_ if you asked them face-to-face in person.

commandlinefan• 2 years ago

I'm still having a hard time believing that anybody was actually disturbed or offended by this ad and that it's not part of a clever guerilla marketing campaign by Apple to trick people into watching the ad.

bkandel• 2 years ago

I had a strongly negative emotional reaction to the ad. Dwelling on crushing musical instruments, kids' toys, books, sculptures, and then the paint spurting out at the end into a depressing post-industrial warehouse -- something about it really affected me. It's not like I'm debilitated for the rest of the day, but it definitely makes me feel less positively about the ipad advertised.

gofreddygo• 2 years ago

Well the Ad is disturbing to me. I can see the intent and it's not malicious. But the backlash is good IMO. Because it sets a stake in the ground and a point to be brought up in the room when the marketing team wants to show a hydraulic press, a chain saw, flame thrower, a wrecking ball or a bulldozer destroying things for the purpose of grabbing my attention in their next ad.

An animation of all those nice items magically squeezing into the iPad one at a time, each contributing to an ongoing song/theme would sell far far better.

dougb52• 2 years ago

I was stressed and angered by the ad, and I think I get through life fine, otherwise -- or at least, I can't think of another ad in the past decade that has caused me this reaction. It wouldn't be as bad if it were detached from its purpose as an Apple ad, or if it played as a short before a Pixar movie. It's because it's the biggest (or 2nd biggest?) company in the world giving us a wrenching visual depiction of a future in which so many beautiful things from the past and the present are squashed into a soulless rectangle.

keepamovin3• 2 years ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntjkwIXWtrc

Omg. It's like the Apple X indie-horror-movie crossover.

Hmmm, this is why Steve Jobs is needed. This ad is such Ballmeresque

— meaning Tim must be asleep at the wheel, or, more likely, on his Vision Pro while his Tesla takes over directions. haha! :)

keepamovin3• 2 years ago

Tho honestly on further reflection I kind of liked that ad. Edgy and cool and YouTube esque in an ironic way. I think I was just channeling a common resentment for it… I don’t actually think it’s terrible. Sorry, Tim and Apple haha! :)

DavidPiper• 2 years ago

This ad feels unnerving for, I think, non-obvious reasons, beyond just the raw destruction of artistic tools.

In music and sound effects from horror genres and other "scary" things, playing very high pitches with very low pitches makes us anxious - our brains are wired to perceive high pitches as safe and low pitches as menacing[1]. If they're both happening at the same time, our brain gets stuck trying to figure out WTF IS GOING ON, which makes us anxious.

A similar thing happens with this ad: cheerful music while apparently senseless destruction (the reveal doesn't happen until the end) is taking place. IIRC one of the Fallout games did this too - post-fallout world but upbeat country music as the theme? The gasoline fight scene in Zoolander. Etc, etc.

Anyway, these kinds of juxtapositions are SUPPOSED to make our brains feel uncomfortable. I imagine this was interpreted by the ad people as "edgy" or "surprising" or "innovative". But it's still going to make people who aren't sensitised to it feel uncomfortable.

Anyway just my take.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-u9YDDrTFo

12_throw_away• 2 years ago

This is a really good observation, it's uncomfortable to watch and listen to even beyond the really obvious but apparently unintended symbolism. The music is off, the sound is off, so many weird decisions here ... some ad exec using ChatGPT instead of doing their job?

mhink• 2 years ago

Yeah, I got these vibes too, but especially from the cinematography. It was kinda _lingering_ on all the little ways each item strained and broke under the weight of the press, almost like it was something to savor. It was weirdly voyeuristic, in a way.

tkdev2• 2 years ago

I liked the Ad. Bunch of snowflakes who got offended by it.

NotYourLawyer• 2 years ago

Is there anything people won’t get offended about? It’s a harmless ad, kinda funny. How do you make it through the day if you’re this thin-skinned?

bsagdiyev• 2 years ago

From upset to upset I suppose. Being perpetually upset has to be tiring.

jgrahamc• 2 years ago

What Apple should have done is play off of "Honey, I shrunk the kids". Get Rick Moranis out of retirement to accidentally shrink all those instruments and everything else into an iPad.

rchaud7• 2 years ago

I've never seen a commercial that could also work as Thomas Friedman's "The World is Flat" metaphor. One size fits all, indeed.

This dystopian ad is far more emblematic of Apple today than the bland Disneyfied ads they normally make.

All these arcade cabinets, vinyl records and expensive instruments are things Apple has tried to flatten into a skeumorphic touchscreen simulacrum for years.

geoffbp• 2 years ago

All publicity is good publicity? Maybe not?

tejohnso• 2 years ago

It's en vogue to elevate your personal negative experiences above all else, and to make them known as publicly as possible. It's not always honest. You can go online and rage about how offended you are about something, and then ten seconds later be laughing about whatever nonsense tiktok decided to show you. It's disingenuous theatre for social media points.

matei88• 2 years ago

There is no such thing as bad publicity. If the purpose of an ad is to get people talking about your product, than i say that Apple hit its mark.

skc• 2 years ago

I still think Apple should be pretty damn proud of the fact that so many generations later they still have a brand so powerful that this misstep can cause such a furor.

Any other company would have been able to put out this ad and nobody would care.

fragmede• 2 years ago

By playing it backwards the things come into being instead of being destroyed.

https://www.threads.net/@fragmede/post/C6yYhCHRlM9

rglover• 2 years ago

That was a genius ad...what's all the fuss about?

can16358p7• 2 years ago

People need to be offended by something. They chose a random innocent Apple ad this time.

pard682• 2 years ago

Great ad. The part where the little stress ball rolls out and gets crushed was a good laugh. I wonder if this was CGI or if they really crushed that stuff.

dunekid• 2 years ago

Looks like someone watched too much of those hydraulic press vs things videos. Of all the ways to send the message that iPad is a creative device, which can become the instrument of choice, they went with this.

sebastianconcpt• 2 years ago

The 3D Printed world made Flat and sold as a UI improvement.

righthand• 2 years ago

Actually what’s great about it is that the tone is the exact opposite of the famous commercial where the individualist shatters the mind control movie. However they both share this soulless concrete aesthetic. Apple is now the soulless corporate machine. Love to see Apple fail and not realize it’s own failure, that is modern Apple.

unobatbayar• 2 years ago

Personally, I liked everything about the ad.

ClarityJones• 2 years ago

I surprised Apple approved the add, because it depicts the brand as a soul-crushing industrial force. The machine is a beast of steel and hydraulic pressure, which constantly bears down against a variety of fun and inspiring things. I don't really care about the particular items that were destroyed, but the theme is clearly one of destruction. We don't see the iPad being made. We see what is literally depicted as a remanent. That's not how Apple should want their brand or their products viewed.

Edit: What's concerning is that Apple is smart. People watched this ad and I have to assume they thought what I thought. So... what's the psychology of deciding to convey this message? Is it a threat? Is it narrative-forming? Is it subversive admission (canary) from within the company? I mean... it's very reminiscent of the 1984 ad, except with Apple being the machine. Of course, it's also possible that they just made a mistake of judgment and missed the mark, as they say. IDK

mrcwinn• 2 years ago

It’s a metaphor for squeezing all the great things into a thin device. It’s unreal, the reaction to this.

donatj• 2 years ago

I enjoyed the ad for the same reason I and millions of others enjoy The Hydraulic Press Channel [1], its just fun to watch stuff get squished. I imagine that's "what they were thinking", for the cadre that keep asking "what were they thinking?"

I genuinely have trouble seeing how in good faith the ad could have been interpreted as anything other than "This is all the stuff that's being put into your iPad"

- https://youtube.com/@hydraulicpresschannel

nojvek3• 2 years ago

Take the Apple Ad in Contrast to the Microsoft Ad that aired during Super Bowl.

The whole time I thought it was an Apple Ad and then it was Microsoft Copilot ad. The made me dream, made me feel I could do more. The ad was about the viewer.

https://youtu.be/SaCVSUbYpVc

See the Apple Siri Ad - it’s about how the device enhances the viewer to do more.

https://youtu.be/8HaEmu-qkD4

Apple has now turned into what they despised.

I absolutely loved the Epic ad that was a take of the original Apple ad which was based on 1984.

Apple - https://youtu.be/VtvjbmoDx-I

Epic - https://youtu.be/euiSHuaw6Q4

It’s fair to say if Steve Jobs was still calling shots, this Ad would have never aired.

The Ad shows everything wrong with Apple. They’ve become a soulless corporation.

zameermfm• 2 years ago

Ad was distasteful and horrible. Biggest problem I see is that, Nobody in the apple decision making body thought this 'missed the mark', it took a global reaction for them to get it. Wonder how deep they are in their lair with a pigeonholed view of the life.

sneak5• 2 years ago

Good art is art that makes you feel something. The ending of Requiem For A Dream is good art, as is this ad.

It may be unfit for purpose as an ad, given how many people reacted with negative emotions, but I don’t think they did anything wrong that warrants an apology (except perhaps to their shareholders for running what may turn out to be an ineffective ad).

Then again, all publicity is good publicity.

I liked that the ad had a hollywood destruction-for-destruction’s sake spectacle to it. I wondered how much was CG and how much wasn’t, and how much stuff was actually destroyed. Some of the closeup shots must have been practical, or CG these days is way better than I realized.

It ultimately doesn’t matter, though. Destruction on this scale is irrelevant.

nico• 2 years ago

This has been at the front of HN for 10+ hours and has almost 300 points

Seems like there really is no bad publicity

userbinator2• 2 years ago

But will this publicity help Apple sell more iPads?

Workaccount24• 2 years ago

Probably.

People forget that it's something like 5% of people who participate in online discussions, and it tends to be the most vocal outrage prone people.

I would guess the average person will see the headline, watch the ad, and think "Meh, it was kinda neat....anyway let me check out what the new iPad offers."

millzlane2• 2 years ago

The message they were trying to convey was clear. All that shit you can replace with an iPad. I think they hit the mark.

You can make a basket of puppies sound like the end of the world with the right words. There is nothing wrong with that ad.

hn92726819• 2 years ago

I'm curious if they CGI'd your basket of puppies in there (after all, you can take puppy pictures on your iPad!), would you not be bothered by it at least a little bit?

kristofferR• 2 years ago

Why not crush the basket of puppies? You can watch videos of puppies on an iPad.

maxrobeyns• 2 years ago

My initial reaction to the ad, upon watching it in the launch event was "huh, that's a fun reference to the Hydraulic Press Channel". The slapstick elements (trumpet noise, squishy balls) made it come across as light-hearted, rather than an ominous display of force by a large company crushing artists' tools.

This idea of 'squashing all these tools down to a thin slab of glass' made sense given their somewhat unusual focus on the thinness of the device. It was a bit of a throwback to the early 2010s smartphone innovation, where the size of the devices was the yardstick by which manufacturers would outdo each other. I would charitably interpret it as an uninspired marketing team trying to spin some version of Jobs' classic "the iPhone is simultaneously an iPod, phone and internet device" - however the party trick is old, and nobody's impressed anymore.

Perhaps the blowback is a sign of a wider weariness that people have accumulated towards big tech companies over the past few years, mixed with a nebulous malaise about 'AI' and what it means for the status quo and people's livelihoods.

matwood2• 2 years ago

It was a bit of a throwback to the early 2010s smartphone innovation

It was also a throwback to the original iPhone announcement bringing all these separate functions into one.

JohnFen4• 2 years ago

The clear meaning I got from the ad was: we want to destroy everything and make you buy our product instead.

I know that wasn't what they were going for (I'm pretty sure, anyway), but it's very hard for me to interpret it differently.

I never connected it to the hydraulic press channel at all for some reason.

mattgreenrocks2• 2 years ago

You either get the symbolism of "let's crush all remaining vestiges of creative culture" or you don't.

If you don't, that's fine. Policing the extent of people's reactions doesn't make for constructive conversation, and, ironically, is merely a different form of "over-reaction."

atmosx3• 2 years ago

The fact, the add went through a considerable amount of people and no one raised a red flag tells you all you need to know about the industry.

xadhominemx• 2 years ago

Yes, that was what the ad depicted but obviously that was not the meaning of the ad. The ad was a metaphor.

dnissley• 2 years ago

Maybe you can go into that more. Where's that intuition coming from that tells you "Apple wants to destroy everything"?

steve19774• 2 years ago

At least I know now what HP channel means, I was wondering how Hewlett Packard was involved in all of this… I‘m getting old…

racl1013• 2 years ago

Perhaps the blowback is a sign of a wider weariness that people have accumulated towards big tech companies over the past few years, mixed with a nebulous malaise about 'AI' and what it means for the status quo and people's livelihoods.

I think you hit it on the head. It's not so much anger about seeing a piano or a trumpet get crushed but more about the symbolism of it. Which, I think is definitely tone deaf on Apple's part.

The fact is, artists, developers and many people from all walks of life are terrified of what AI will mean for their jobs and their livelihood, and also, afraid that it cheapens everything they've spent all their life learning and mastering.

There's definitely a lot of pent up fear and/or hatred for it bubbling at the surface for many people and this commercial just kind triggers those feelings.

mattgreenrocks2• 2 years ago

It's also from Apple's long-time core audience. I'm not sure how people don't understand this, other than maybe they've forgotten the roots of Apple's comeback.

verdverm2• 2 years ago

I think everyone is overly negative around the world for a variety of reasons

COVID hangover, war, elections, food prices

That news & social media is significantly negative and designed to induce and promote rage, that's the crux of this issue

some_random• 2 years ago

I think the big thing here is that if you don't have an attachment to any of the items being crushed you probably don't feel as strongly. If you're a trumpet player, seeing a trumpet being crushed is going to be a bit distressing. If you're a photographer, you're putting a monetary value on those lenses being destroyed. If you're into old arcade machines, you're thinking about how many of those cabinets are left in that good of a condition.

Alupis• 2 years ago

If you're a trumpet player, seeing a trumpet being crushed is going to be a bit distressing

Really? I play the trumpet and felt nothing watching this ad. My trumpet wasn't being crushed, so who cares? It wasn't a rare Stradivarius, nor even a high-end Schilke or anything... Even if it was - why care? They can make more trumpets after all...

Tiktaalik• 2 years ago

The arcade one particularly distressing given that arcades and their unique arcade hardware are rapidly vanishing across the world without replacement.

__turbobrew__• 2 years ago

I don’t think it is healthy if you are emotionally distressed seeing a trumpet being crushed.

Hamuko7• 2 years ago

You mean the arcade cabinet that conveniently switches to a GAME OVER screen while it has sparks flying and smoke pouring out of it when it gets hit by the crusher? Somehow I doubt you lost an actual cabinet. I'll be surprised if it's even made out of wood and not polygons.

commakozzi• 2 years ago

I'm a trumpet player, professionally. I don't give a rats *ss about it. Everyone just wants to get upset about something, is how i see it.

bsder• 2 years ago

Agreed. Wondering how many of those things were real and got crushed was distressing.

The worst part was that you can have a super effective ad simply by reversing the video.

Everything now springs out of the iPad and nobody is thinking about whether anything got crushed.

fl0ki2• 2 years ago

So if you own a house or car then it's distressing to see one destroyed in a movie? Both of those cost much more than a trumpet, and for many people are more personal and unique, but somehow most people manage to keep their eyes on the screen.

monksy• 2 years ago

It's not your personal trumpet that is getting smashed.

caconym_2• 2 years ago

AFAICT people are not so much upset about objects of value being destroyed as they are about the symbolism of creative tools being crushed flat and turned into an iPad. For artists and similar creatives, it evokes the way AI companies have already stolen their intellectual property, and their promise to make them all but obsolete in the future.

Tool_of_Society3• 2 years ago

"Space Imploder" is not a real arcade game. That looked like one of those cheap mini arcade boxes you can buy brand new from a variety of sources.

I see a bunch of cheap knock offs being crushed but I cannot say all of the items were.

baxuz• 2 years ago

It reminded me of the old Game Boy Pocket commercials:

https://youtu.be/qzAo9HzOgtQ

https://youtu.be/CWh_6jutU7M

verdverm2• 2 years ago

That first one is pretty on point and hilarious in comparison

hot_gril9• 2 years ago

It's simply uncomfortable to see a lot of valuable creative tools being slowly destroyed for no reason, especially a piano. I'm not even thinking about the symbolism.

hn8305823• 2 years ago

Wait until you see what goes on at the county landfill.

Nition5• 2 years ago

I thought it was obvious that the entire ad is CGI. Nothing really breaks how it would. When the top of the piano breaks, all the dampers magically fall off.

javajosh• 2 years ago

I saw the ad as trying to draw an equivalence between the iPad and all of those creative tools, as if owning an iPad is equivalent, or even better, than owning those objects. This is a lie, a deception, and apart from lamenting the loss of so many wonderful objects the lie of it is what really sticks in my craw.

spandrew• 2 years ago

Yeah — I liked it in general. But can completely see why artists would hate the concept of a giant weight crushing the artistic object that has fueled their life-long obsessions.

kenjackson3• 2 years ago

This outrage feels so manufactured. I'm a huge basketball fan, coach, ex-player. If they included a basketball in the ad my thought would've been "yeah, you can play NBA2k on it". I'm not mad about the destruction of a single basketball. I don't feel like its disrespect to the game. It's showing that this single device has captured elements of basketball into a small form factor.

As you note this may hint at a larger weariness with big tech -- and I tend to agree. I feel like if it was a public library crushing a bunch of things, and then ends with it lifting up and showing a library card there wouldn't be the same concerns.

pc862• 2 years ago

Look at the replies to the original tweet, it's all as you say completely manufactured outrage. Perpetually-online wannabe influencers with 70 followers talking about how it's "problematic." Maybe it has to do with Big Tech, I don't know but that sounds like it could be it.

Regardless, it's absolutely ridiculous.

yieldcrv• 2 years ago

Apple is 100% engagement farming

but I don't think it was planned they are just capitalizing on the free algorithm marketing by catering to the loud voices on tiktok, x and threads

because_789• 2 years ago

Interestingly, basketballs are designed to be as standardized and replaceable as possible (so there’s no question about whether they affected the game.) Whereas musicians do not think of instruments that way. Nor photographers and their cameras, etc. The reaction might be specific to artists. They’re represented on HN, but not as much as non-artists, I bet.

haswell10• 2 years ago

I really have to disagree.

I have to acknowledge that there’s probably a pile-on effect from people who enjoy outrage, but a lot of the negative sentiment is coming from level headed musicians and artists; a group that I identify with.

And I wouldn’t say my reaction is rage. It’s closer to a combination of deep disappointment, strong dislike, and a growing feeling that the nebulous worries I’ve felt about tech and its impact on art/music are being made very real.

I don’t find it analogous to a library. Such an ad would imply (to me) some kind of digitization, which frankly is a huge problem at a time when libraries and access to physical books are increasingly under threat.

And I find it different than a basketball, because no one is worried that NBA2K is an actual threat to the game, and basketballs are inexpensive standardized objects.

What they crushed was symbolic of thousands of years of human artistic creativity and output at a time when there’s a lot of anxiety about AI more or less crushing those fields for real.

Tao33004• 2 years ago

You can read the Bible on there too. They could have crushed a crucifix.

That's barely hyperbole. The arts are sacred, and big tech is destroying and defiling them.

Maybe I'm even overreacting. But I had tears in my eyes watching it and I assure you my outrage is not manufactured right now.

itishappy10• 2 years ago

If they included a basketball in the ad my thought would've been "yeah, you can play NBA2k on it".

Basketballs are replaceable. They specifically picked objects with nostalgic connections.

Would you feel different if they burned an old high-school jersey, or maybe the one Michael Jordan wore?

jp_nc• 2 years ago

I think it’s the disappointment that Apple is supposed to be on the side of creators and humanity in an era where the arts have been under attack in schools. Apple makes great tools that should complement an artist and their work. It enables a kid who can’t afford an expensive studio to produce their own music. It’s not that it was an outrage machine - it was a population of creatives saying “hey, this feels a little weird”

sudhirj• 2 years ago

I like the ad on the whole, but I was a little upset about the destruction of seemed like a perfectly good guitar. I play the guitar as a hobby.

But then again, rock bands have been making me upset by smashing guitars on stage for decades now. And these are the same kind of musicians who are apparently outraged now.

Can sort of understand the discomfort, but musicians have been smashing their own instruments for dramatic effect for a while now.

quartesixte• 2 years ago

My initial reaction was the opposite — “wow they are kind of late to the hydraulic press channel hype. That’s odd.”

For a company that has always prided itself on having strong marketing chops, this felt out of character. And perhaps a sign of the general change in culture and standards at Apple.

ErigmolCt• 2 years ago

...general change in culture and standards at Apple Thinking it is a bad thing...

pokstad• 2 years ago

If my metronome app stops complying with iOS developer guidelines, it will stop working or Apple will pull it. This doesn’t happen to a real dedicated metronome. The App Store is a problem for iPad. Developers need the freedom to develop solutions for iPad without Apple constantly breaking their APIs or introducing new standards. Otherwise nothing on iPad is timeless.

stephc_int137• 2 years ago

I am not a musician or photographer, but I see the emotional value of those extremely well crafted and often beloved objects.

I create software, mostly, but I practice woodworking as a hobby, and I can tell how difficult it is to build a piano or any kind of musical instrument.

I found the ad extremely distasteful, enough to trigger mild nausea.

I see the point they were trying to make, but it is both dumb and old, and frankly nobody asked for a thinner iPad.

The most annoying part is that _they_ did not feel what countless people saw and felt, they are too disconnected from their audience.

The outrage is not made up, some of us felt it in our bones, I understand that we don't all share the same sensitivity, but you can't simply brush it off as if this was somewhat orchestrated or theatre.

grumpyprole2• 2 years ago

Spot on. An iPad won't last long enough to become some omes beloved object.

creer• 2 years ago

How much of a blowback was that really anyway? I mean a social media headline that a few others pile on... is rather limited as a blowback.

If anything both ad idea and implementation are mediocre - and perhaps should have been rejected on that account. This is indeed Youtube shorts stuff. And someone pointed out the exact same ad idea from LG 15 years ago https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcUAQ2i5Tfo with even more musical instruments.

apantel• 2 years ago

It depends if it sticks in the cultural memory. Their 1984 ad has been immortalized. And, “Hi, I’m a Mac. And I’m a PC.” Ads can have lasting impact.

rconti• 2 years ago

It made me cringe, but only because I saw it after hearing about the controversy. It made me wonder whether I'd have had the same reaction if I just saw it "fresh".

userbinator2• 2 years ago

Exactly. It's not only the creative artists who are opposing, although that's what this ad targets; a lot of others not in big tech are also very displeased with where things are going. The sentiment of this resistance can be summed up in two short sentences: "You will not replace us. Machines will not replace us."

benreesman• 2 years ago

I think this is exactly correct:

“Perhaps the blowback is a sign of a wider weariness that people have accumulated towards big tech companies over the past few years, mixed with a nebulous malaise about 'AI' and what it means for the status quo and people's livelihoods.”

To the former point, I think it was Doctorow that coined the term “enshittification”.

To be fair to Big Tech, they’re not any worse than healthcare companies, or airlines, or any of the countless (sometimes it seems basically all) corporations that have been steadily turning the crank on making the modern experience a little worse every year for typical people (I’m not interested in silly summary statistics like per-capita GDP or the CPI, those are gamed to hell: give me an arithmetic mean and I’ll give you a corrupt system).

It’s that so recently they were so much better. When I joined a FAANG in 2011 I had no issue wearing company gear around. People would be like: “that’s awesome I use that every day it’s great”. By 2018 I was lying in coffee shops and bars about what I did for a living (one of the main reasons I left).

Regarding AI broadly construed, it could be used as a wildly powerful tool for leveling the playing field, the way Google was when it appeared. It’s in the hopes of realizing that outcome that I work on it and am so vocally critical of those who just trivially don’t want that.

But it could also become the greatest tool for oppression since the firearm, and I think the public is starting to get wise to the fact this is unfortunately the path we’re on.

It’s trite, but I always come back to this: when the robots are finally capable of doing all the work, do we get Star Trek TNG or Blade Runner.

The technology is a step in either direction depending on how it’s used and regulated.

squigglydonut2• 2 years ago

This is why I am embarrassed to tell people I work in tech.

Clubber5• 2 years ago

This is why I am embarrassed to tell people I work in tech.

Because of the ad, or because all the people complaining about the ad?

squigglydonut2• 2 years ago

Simply because of the ad :(. It's so cold. I think people are justified to feel that way but it's clinging on to old era Apple. For awhile now apple has lost it's humanity. It's sad but I think it's over and I think it's time for something new.

stephc_int137• 2 years ago

One of the reason this ad was so badly received is that Apple reputation has been degrading for a while now. And we're seeing the tipping point, they are in their villain arc, not sure if they can repair that.

Reputation is built by the drop, and consumed by the bucket.

hobbescotch• 2 years ago

Their Apple vision ad was very dystopian feeling and to me looks like the same team did this one. They seem really out of touch. Very negative vibes in these recent ads.

stephc_int137• 2 years ago

Ultimately, this is Tim Cook. The guy is a control freak, pretty much like Jobs was, but with different views and taste.

I find Tim Cook presence extremely chilling, highly sociopathic vibes.

Smithalicious• 2 years ago

It's a great ad. 620 comments on hacker news, got me to watch it voluntarily even though I never see ads. Even got me to share it with someone else.

Ads don't exist to make you feel good, they exist to make you notice them.

marcosdumay5• 2 years ago

Except that it makes some of the most relevant Apple customers see them as an enemy that is out to crush their dreams... and are sharing it so their friends get the memo and feel the same way.

kccqzy3• 2 years ago

I watched it and then resolved to never buy an iPad again. I'm sharing it with people who will make the same resolution.

romille• 2 years ago

Pretty sure this backlash is orchestrated as part of the campaign itself to boost the visibility of the ad.

The proof is: here we are talking about it.

breadwinner• 2 years ago

Here's a better implementation of a similar concept. Instead of crushing musical instruments and other nice things in your life, those nice things merge into... a Blackberry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iQ9oepKScE

yousif_123123• 2 years ago

I didn't like the ad. I think the people creating it wanted to imply that it's as if they took all these things and put it in an iPad, where you can still achieve all the creativity while carrying a thin device.

I don't think it's impossible to convey that message without destroying instruments and creative tools that are precious to so many. Maybe if they had made the animation very fast it would've appeared as a joke and not something intended to be taken literally.

Also could've had some artist exit a studio, take the iPad, do a whole bunch of stuff, then go back to the studio and kind of test out/use the tools while reading from the iPad or something like that.

I know some people are saying the reaction is too strong, but trust me if you practice on a piano daily you will not feel good watching it get crushed.

I don't even work in marketing or own any Apple devices.

mateus1• 2 years ago

It is also a false equivalence.

An iPad will never replicate the beauty of a human playing a piano or a violin.

It’s dumb consumerism trying to make us believe that life comes down to buying rather than living.

wilsonnb35• 2 years ago

An iPad will never replicate the beauty of a human playing a piano or a violin.

I mean, one of its primary uses is to replicate the beauty of a human playing piano or violin via videos and recordings.

Aside from that, isn’t this just an appeal to tradition? An iPad is a tool just like a piano or the violin, people make beautiful music with them all the time.

I am sure there were curmudgeons saying that the piano and violin would never replicate the beauty of the human voice when they were the top technology of the day.

LeifCarrotson2• 2 years ago

I am quite confident that a skilled musician with an iPad (or, even more obviously, an electric keyboard with a MIDI cable to the iPad) can create music that is indistinguishable from a human playing a piano. The synthesizer will be able to replicate the sound of the best concert grand in the best auditorium, direct to your studio headphones.

I'm also quite sure even unskilled musicians will prefer the feel of practicing and playing on a slightly out-of-tune old upright to a cheap electric synth-action keyboard or (ugh) a glass touchscreen.

It's just a tool.

suyash• 2 years ago

That can be said for most of all tech companies who are just trying to sell you shiny app that will supposedly fix all your problems.

chrisjj3• 2 years ago

I think we're supposed to believe the human plays the tablet as beautifully as s/he plays a violin.

Might boost sales to everyone who has never heard a violin...

toyg2• 2 years ago

The original idea is sound: "we are squeezing all tools into the iPad".

The problem is that you can't squeeze an object without resorting to animation. So instead they went for crushing, which carries destructive undertones. A lot of people have strong emotional attachments to objects like pianos and vinyl players; destroying them is a powerful trigger.

If this had been done with animation, with some djinn magically squeezing everything into an iPad, it would have been just fine.

This said, there is no such thing as bad publicity - here we are, talking about the umpteenth version of a product we would otherwise take for granted. The ad might have been distasteful but it did the job.

Uehreka5• 2 years ago

There definitely is such a thing as bad publicity, I wish people would stop using that phrase to make dumb things sound smart. Of all the companies out there, Apple definitely doesn’t want to trade on negative sentiment, it clashes with their overall brand strategy. In particular this iPad Pro launch is riskier than normal, given that it has brand new screen tech and is the thinnest device they’ve ever made, and it’s possible they pulled this commercial to avoid creating associations between this iPad and the act of “crushing” things.

Furthermore I doubt that anyone on HN (except like 2 people who will definitely reply to this comment) who didn’t know about the new iPad Pro before this commericial learned about it from this post.

dougb52• 2 years ago

There is absolutely bad publicity when you already have the world's most valuable brand (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_valuable_brands)

hnlmorg2• 2 years ago

If this had been done with animation, with some djinn magically squeezing everything into an iPad, it would have been just fine.

It already was an animation. So they could have taken your approach instead.

shombaboor• 2 years ago

The creative tools just had to be sucked in like a wormhole. It's just surprising it got this far without someone intervening. Shows that someone high up couldn't be backed down.

stephc_int137• 2 years ago

When your Brand is as valuable as Apple or Boeing, bad publicity is a thing.

They don't need to be known, but they need to maintain the positive values associated with their brand.

The Apple brand is their most valuable asset, they probably destroyed billions in brand value with the shitstorm around this horribly distasteful ad.

wouldbecouldbe2• 2 years ago

No need to destroy. They could have definitely merged the items like a rainbow melting all into the iPad. Those visuals are pretty common.

That would have have looked nice, but it wouldn't have touched people.

This is very graphic and elicits a much stronger emotion. I think that's why it was chosen.

The irony is that it know kind of feels like more honest then it's supposed to be, digital tools crushing tradition artistry.

hn_throwaway_993• 2 years ago

The original idea is sound: "we are squeezing all tools into the iPad".

Hard disagree. Yes, I do agree that a big part of the emotional reaction to the ad were seeing all these beloved tools of craftsmanship being destroyed.

But another underlying current is people reaching the conclusion that they do not want all of their individual, sometimes quirky tools being subsumed under a single flat silicon panel. I'll just speak for myself, but I often find myself craving more real, physical interaction and not just something that exists on a screen.

Some of us actually crave a little more of the chaotic, interesting world of WALL-E over the sleek perfection of EVE (which was, somewhat unsurprisingly, reviewed and blessed by Jonathan Ive).

chrisjj3• 2 years ago

The original idea is sound: "we are squeezing

Really? I wonder how it got titled Crush! then.

The problem is that you can't squeeze an object without resorting to animation.

Not a problem. The ad isn't short of animation.

there is no such thing as bad publicity

I's say the apology shows Apple disagrees.

wvh• 2 years ago

There is a growing backlash against technology and its harmful effects though. People are rightfully getting suspicious about that handful of tech companies and their intentions. Few are willing to give up on technology, nor should they as it's futile to fight progress, but the debate and guard rails are being shaped, and the tone deafness of some of these big technology companies is not helping their cause.

The astronomical user base of companies like Google and Apple should not be an indicator about the actual goodwill of people towards these brands. Getting away with something does not mean your behaviour isn't causing increasing animosity and feeding general discontentment.

giancarlostoro• 2 years ago

The video is cool, but yeah, watching all these great items being crushed, is wow.

TeaBrain• 2 years ago

There is no such thing as bad publicity when you are not yet established. When you are already a recognized and popular brand, such as Apple or AB InBev, it can hurt revenue, such as how AB InBev suffered from lower revenue following their own advertisement backlash.

paulpan• 2 years ago

This exactly. There are many other ways to express "squeezing into one" but both bizarrely and shockingly Apple (or whichever ad agency) went for "crushing with hydraulic press" instead. How did everyone miss on the negative undertone before this ad was released?

Could be extrapolating this incident too much but it feels it encapsulates the transformation of Apple from this quirky, unconventional upstart into a monopolistic leviathan the past 2 decades. There's also a sense of hubris at suggesting your single electronic device can replace all those creative tools.

softfalcon• 2 years ago

A djinni with Tim Apple's face would be funny. Comes out of a home pod and magics the whole recording studio into an iPad. Probably too whimsical for an Apple's taste though.

citizen_friend4• 2 years ago

If you think of yourself as skeptical, agnostic, materialist. I don’t understand how you can be upset about cheap in-animate objects get destroyed for an entertaining video.

skywhopper4• 2 years ago

No one is actually upset about any specific objects that were destroyed in the making of this ad. This sort of advertising is all about eliciting emotions and shaping a message--a vibe--about a particular product. This ad triggered visceral feelings related to the emotional connection a lot of people--even skeptical agnostic materialists!--have with the tools, instruments, and products of creativity and art. And based on the reaction, the ad clearly elicited a lot of negative emotions and a negative vibe in what is presumably the iPad Pro's target audience. Thus, I'd say that even from your ultra-rationalist point of view, it's a bad ad.

sangnoir2• 2 years ago

Another person on social media noted that no Apple ad has ever depicted older generation iPads or MacBook Pros being crushed by a hydraulic press to signify them being made thinner - I suspect Apple wouldn't even greenlight that ad pitch.

eddd-ddde• 2 years ago

It's not matter of spiritualism.

If I put my skill and effort crafting something and it is destroyed, I'll feel sad.

Feeling that way even for things other made is called empathy.

CamperBob26• 2 years ago

Try a car analogy on for size: a new Corvette might be superior to a classic Porsche in all the ways that matter, but nobody at GM would greenlight an ad depicting a C8 emerging from a crusher that had just destroyed a '63 911. They would understand how disrespectful it would seem.

danjoredd6• 2 years ago

Im not a skeptical agnostic materialist, but those objects were far from being cheap. Those instruments cost thousands of dollars each. The arcade cabinet as well(there aren't exactly a lot of those left).

The entire point of the ad is that the entire human creative experience is consolidated into the ipad, which is a pretty dystopian way of looking at things. Even if you ignore the cost and rarity of these items, the symbolism is pretty horrible.

mark2422• 2 years ago

If you had ever put the time and effort (and blood!) into learning how to play the guitar, you too would have a visceral reaction to seeing a guitar getting destroyed for nothing. It's not the objects themselves that are the problem, it is our connection to those objects, and our innate feelings about those objects, that Apple has smashed in that video. That's a marketing 101 mistake and how this ad ever got greenlit is beyond me.

BuyMyBitcoins• 2 years ago

Why not show all of these objects being put into a magicians top-hat and then pulling out the iPad at the end?

Rinzler896• 2 years ago

Because that would have been too 2001 and the ad company paid for this couldn't have justified it's budget like that.

kevinmchugh• 2 years ago

Or have a giant scale, show people loading all this stuff into one side of the scale, and then placing the iPad on the other side, and the iPad side sinks. There's a million ways to do this idea

withinrafael• 2 years ago

Agreed. I was thinking along the same lines. Some Wonka-like contraption where all this on-going creativity in a room was captured, fed into a whimsical pipes leading to an assembly line, with an iPad reveal at the end.

caycep2• 2 years ago

Some filmmaker just ran the video backwards and it worked so much better

ethbr15• 2 years ago

Backwards: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XYB6JJoDSuk

That is, hilariously, an excellent ad.

It's gotta sting when someone says "No, actually just reversing your terrible thing makes a wonderful thing. Didn't you think of that?"

pohl• 2 years ago

It seems odd to complain about one old upright piano being crushed for the video when thousands upon thousands of them are out on the streets, living under bridges, because no one wants to move the piano anymore, or wanted the convenience of an electronic keyboard.

I implore you all: adopt a piano today! You may find yourself saying "I didn't rescue it, it rescued me."

killjoywashere• 2 years ago

We adopted a piano while we were overseas and moved it to San Francisco. We ended up giving it to a church after my son decided he couldn't abide the high notes that could never quite get into tune. Still have fond memories of it though.

rfw300• 2 years ago

I think this misses the mark. The ad is inherently symbolic—it’s not this particular piano, but the fact that they’re destroying all of these beloved instruments of creativity in such a gratuitous and evocative manner. That’s what upsetting, not the literal fact that one piano was destroyed in the making of the ad.

hinkley5• 2 years ago

See also Jimi Hendrix, the Clash, The Who, Nine Inch Nails, Nirvana…

prattatx• 2 years ago

I would have preferred the reverse of crushing our tools into something. I would have preferred pulling them out of the iPad to create. As a d&d fan, I could imagine a bard with a black hole pulling instruments and creative tools out in order to render magic.

I felt like I was watching the end of Terminator 1 when watching that iPad commercial.

Avamander• 2 years ago

I saw a tweet that did exactly that, reversed the ad. The subtext was really different.

ethagknight• 2 years ago

“Honey, I shrunk the iPad. And the composer. And the orchestra.” would have been a better angle

hinkley5• 2 years ago

I just watched this ad for the first time. It’s odd but I don’t have a reaction to it.

What I am having a reaction to is all the reactions about destroying instruments. Which in turn reminded me of the song by Cake.

Rock n’ Roll Lifestyle:

…

How much did you pay

For the chunk of his guitar

The one he ruthlessly smashed at the end of the show?

And how much will he pay

For a brand-new guitar

One which he'll ruthlessly smash at the end of another show?

And how long will the workers

Keep building him new ones?

As long as their soda cans are red, white, and blue ones

…

EGreg• 2 years ago

Anyone remember the original awesome Google Chromebook ad where they meticulousoy showed destruction of several laptops? I know it’s not the same thing but it reminded me of it and I can’t find it anywhere in YouTube! Anyone got a link who knows what I’m talking about?

whiteboardr• 2 years ago

It was painful to watch and i won’t have a second look.

It would have been as simple as adding a short “Professional CGI Artists. No actual instrument and tools were harmed.” to set a lighter tone and take the pain away.

Given the raging discussion and thus reach, this won’t hurt sales in the slightest - pretty much the opposite and i guess we’re left with giving kudos to marketing well played.

ericmcer• 2 years ago

They probably figured it would be really strong imagery to see the items being physically crushed in a giant press. It definitely invokes feelings, but not good ones.

flanbiscuit• 2 years ago

I don't think it's impossible to convey that message without destroying instruments and creative tools that are precious to so many.

This is how I felt seeing rock musicians destroying perfectly good instruments and amps. Growing up my parents didn't have the money to buy me a guitar (or didn't want to buy me one), so I would see these performances and would just think, can't they just donate that guitar to some poor kid or a school instead of destroying them? It really annoyed me, but it didn't stop me from loving the band and their music. I'm a late Gen-Xer and watching Nirvana destroy the stage after a performance just made me go "aw, those were good instruments someone else could have used". I don't know if it's "cool" to do that anymore, but I never see any other artists calling that out like they are for this ad, and it's been going on since the 70s.

bnralt2• 2 years ago

Interesting point. The Clash even celebrated the destruction of instruments on the cover of London Calling (the cover being a photo of their bassist smashing his bass). And though the Apple ad seems like it’s trying to convey they idea that all these devices are within the iPad, the smashing of instruments and equipment by rockers seems to just be about…reveling in the destruction of instruments and equipment.

You see this in other art as well. For example, the Dadaists took a lot of functional tools, messed them up, and displayed them as art. Moving beyond art, destruction that accompanies political unrest is often dismissed.

It’s interesting that the Apple ad is what touched off this discussion, because it’s actually fairly tame with regards to a lot of intentional destruction of equipment.

lotu• 2 years ago

I'm not sure but I think this ad was fully animated and nothing was actually destroyed. A hydraulic press of this size, if any even exist, is going to look a lot bulkier and not like a cartoon stomper coming down from the ceiling. We don't see the side bracing which would needed if you didn't want your hydraulic press to rip a hole in your ceiling.

Especially with all the angles they have it would have been incredibly difficult and dangerous to get all the shots, and every shot came out perfectly.

boringg5• 2 years ago

It was a depressing advertisement. I don't know why you would want that to be your message as a company.

I know that wasn't their intention but thats what the message came across as. Some arm of the company doesn't allow people to speak up if they have reservations about something -> thats how that one made it through the quality filter. AKA there were people on the inside definitely knew that there would be a backlash on this but probably weren't allowed to speak up.

baby• 2 years ago

Overreaction of the century

sircastor• 2 years ago

For folks questioning or arguing why someone might have a strong emotional reaction to this, and still carry a phone in their pocket, or still use Apple products daily, or even just like Apple…

Humans are complex. We do things that aren’t in our best interest, we make bad calls, change our minds, have split opinions about things. We’re hypocrites.

And that’s okay. We live in a complex world where the consequences of any decision have vast positive and negative effects, setting off further complex consequences. It can be overwhelming and while we probably want to live by a single, dependable, rational, reasonable code-of-ethics, often we’re just trying to make it through the day.

dghughes• 2 years ago

That was real stuff not CG? Ohh. Yeah that seems unnecessary these days of ultra-real computer graphics.

karaterobot2• 2 years ago

This feels like another example of people getting mad at a depiction of a thing rather than at the actual thing. Like getting mad at violence in movies, or at books with racism in them. Yeah, big tech is actively trying to take away your livelihoods, and you can interpret this commercial as accidentally symbolizing that. But the problem is that it's actually happening, not that they filmed a skit about it. The commercial doesn't make it worse, and you don't get anything in return for all the effort required to get pissed off about it. Even if posting an angry rant on Twitter doesn't burn a lot of calories, you'd still be better off doing almost anything else.

fullshark2• 2 years ago

How do you attack the actual thing? Some are trying with copyright lawsuits and potential gov't policy proposals I guess but it's much easier to attack a single company and get an army of outraged allies over something easily digestible (an advertisement).

karaterobot2• 2 years ago

I agree that there's two things: doing something about it, which is hard, and complaining about it, which is easy. What I'm saying is, if you're going to complain about something, might as well complain about the real problem rather than a harmless symbolic representation of the problem.

knbrlo• 2 years ago

Even if it didn't have the intended effect of making everyone feel good, at least everyone is talking about it so in a sense it worked in Apple's favor.

jamesbfb• 2 years ago

The comments on the wider internet reminds me of the 90s and 2000s when bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Silverchair were being ridiculed for smashing up their instruments on stage. We’ve come full circle.

jononomo• 2 years ago

I thought the ad was arrogant and dystopian.

surfingdino• 2 years ago

It's about Apple not reading the room. The creative community see that AI vendors assume that they have the right to ingest IP without compensation, train their models on it, resell derivative works based on it, and there is nothing that can be done about it. Then Apple releases this stupid ad suggesting that all tools of the creative profession will be destroyed after they get packaged into a tablet that can do nothing by itself unless it is loaded with samples and algorithms based on the creative works of others. In short, artists are being told that while AI is stealing value from them and their creations, Apple will steal their tools and creations and put them behind the iPad paywall. It's one more middle finger to the creatives from the company that used to say "Think Different". Stupid and unnecessary.

soci• 2 years ago

What’s most surprising is how the ad went live without nobody pressing the ”Retry” button to build a new ad idea, neither in the chain of command at Apple nor at the creative agency, if any. It’s like everybody everybody, one after the other in the chain of decisions, eluded their responsability. Why?

smm11• 2 years ago

Next up they'll show a giant press destroy the world, other than one guy's house, then the guy puts on V2 Vision Pro and is in "the world" again.

vlark• 2 years ago

It's tone deaf, for sure, but it's really a bad ad because Apple isn't showing any originality but simply ripping off an old LG ad: https://9to5mac.com/2024/05/09/controversial-ipad-pro-crush-...

bongoman42• 2 years ago

Personally, given how much people have shared the ad, I would say it was a successful ad. I pretty much try to avoid all ads, and rarely remember any, but this one came in my twitter feed at least 50 times if not more and all of these were organic reshares by folks I follow. Given how Apple purchases work I think it would only positively impact their bottom line. Overall, I didn't like the ad at all but it is memorable at a visceral level.

dogman1448• 2 years ago

This ad said the quiet part out loud about what the average technologist thinks of the average liberal arts pursuit. It just had to manifest as an ad from an insulated marketing dept for it to finally happen “in the open.” No surprises, and it was nice to see it out stated clearly.

vessenes• 2 years ago

I, like a lot of people, just hated the ad, although I liked it in reverse.

If there's a single product company that hires technologists who also love the arts, it's Apple -- this campaign was just mismanaged by someone who missed the point, and didn't understand Apple's history very well.

Also, apparently, the ipad is really thin, so maybe they got overexcited :)

chankstein38• 2 years ago

Agreed, I definitely think the reverse is better. It gets the same point across while implying the new ipad is bursting at the seams with all of these cultural tools. I wasn't offended by the destruction or anything just straight up kind of a dumb commercial.

dogman1448• 2 years ago

A technology company that loves the arts and shows it by paternalistically crushing all of its implements and saying “trust us this iPad is better than your heirloom piano or silly books.”

Right on trend. They might love it, but they don’t understand it, and per the last 20 years love unemploying it.

duped• 2 years ago

It's hard to remove this ad from the context of the current market for artistic services, which have always been undervalued by non-artists (eg: "give me this for free so you get exposure!"), which is under assault from AI startups that think they're making the world better by killing the most human parts of our economy.

Artists are really being stung by AI right now. And Apple, ostensibly the darling tech company for artists, puts out an ad literally crushing artistic tools and telling you to buy an iPad to replace them. By the way, it has the most powerful neural engine ever.

It's not just tone deaf, it's insulting.

dogman1448• 2 years ago

Not sure (well I am sure given the audience) why you’re getting downvotes… other than it’s a bitter pill for engineers to swallow that the creative arts industry which eng culture tries to simultaneously love/emulate/crush economically hates engineers and tech culture in return for this multi-decade attitude. Even in the face of “hey but I use XYZ tech for art, that’s not true!” that tend to pop up.

You are spot on, and the ad, and it’s humorous “wait they hate us?” counter-reaction/confusion in reaction to feedback about encapsulates it all well.

robertoandred• 2 years ago

Technology (especially comp sci) falls under liberal arts.

542458• 2 years ago

To be more explicit, liberal arts refers to art as in skill, not as in fine arts. Liberal arts education is the dominant educational paradigm in the western world. Any education that emphasizes being well-rounded any knowing something about many subjects is typically a liberal arts education (compared to a technical or professional education where you just learn a lot about a single subject).

xyzwave• 2 years ago

Maybe the average technologist, but for anyone who understands Apple's culture and history, your claim is not just inaccurate, but opposite of the truth.

Steve Jobs addressed this exact point during a 2011 keynote [0]:

It is in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough—it’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the results that make our heart sing.

0. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlI1MR-qNt8

malcolmgreaves• 2 years ago

That company is long gone now.

wiseowise12• 2 years ago

As if Apple then is the same as Apple now.

uses• 2 years ago

That's a huge marketing fail if that's what it made you feel because it would be completely contrary to their messaging during the rest of the iPad event. The 30 minute show was almost entirely about using the iPad in creative pursuits. Illustration, film making, photography, music, etc.

elevatedastalt5• 2 years ago

Considering the NYT tells us every single day what the average liberal arts pursuit thinks about the average technologist, I won't worry too much about that.

dogman1448• 2 years ago

Worry about what? I’m pointing out that it’s nice for tech to finally be honest about the view and get a deserving reaction in return after decades of self-congratulation.

abvdasker2• 2 years ago

What an unbelievably childish response. What does the New York Times have to do with this ad? What makes you think the New York Times is representative of the "average liberal arts pursuit"? Is the New York Times especially antagonistic towards the tech industry? Do you seriously believe there exists some us-versus-them division between "liberal arts" and "technologists"?

INTPenis2• 2 years ago

They made a cheetah run along a Jeep. Who cares?

This is only outrage because people want to be outraged at Apple. And I don't own a single Apple product telling you this.

hk__2• 2 years ago

See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40314035

INTPenis2• 2 years ago

No, you see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40322371

It was all just stolen from an LG ad in 2009. And nobody got upset at that.

So clearly this is about Apple as a brand evoking emotions and fake outrage.

robbyiq999• 2 years ago

Waiting the for future disclaimer; “No Bric A Brac was harmed in the making of this ad”

bittercynic• 2 years ago

Very few ads feel like art to me, but this one did.

The message to me is anti-tech, though.

All these wonderful things are taken away from us, and instead we just get an iPad.

I mean, I have an iPad, and it's a cool gadget, but it's obviously no replacement for any one of the instruments getting crushed.

password543214• 2 years ago

Wasn't the exploding emoji an obvious giveaway that this wasn't supposed to be taken that seriously and was partly in jest? I think we may just have a lot of pent-up anger.

largbae• 2 years ago

They got more attention with this apology than they would have gotten with any ad, at least from this crew.

can16358p7• 2 years ago

Some people just like to get offended by literally everything, even an ad with objects crushing. Sigh.

nsxwolf• 2 years ago

I liked it. It was fun to watch stuff get smashed and paint explode all over the place. All that stuff gets squished into the iPad. Get it? I got it.

can16358p7• 2 years ago

Yup I loved it too, yet the Internet People need to attack something, so they picked this ad today.

readingnews• 2 years ago

Does the Verge even proofread? In a linked article (https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/9/24152987/apple-crush-ad-pi...) they claim:

> Watching a piano, which if maintained can last for something like 50 years

Something like 50? I know people who own pianos which are "something like" 150 years old, and I do not know many people with a piano.

Some are _centuries_ old. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortepiano

brentm• 2 years ago

We're a very fortunate generation of people to be so concerned over this ad.

jesprenj• 2 years ago

I think the ad is very cool and I like it.

trollied• 2 years ago

LG did the same ad 15 years ago & nobody got worked up about it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcUAQ2i5Tfo

yungporko3• 2 years ago

i didn't think it was a great ad but they certainly don't owe anybody an apology. besides, i guarantee that there's no overlap at all in the venn diagram of people complaining about it vs potential ipad pro buyers.

behnamoh2• 2 years ago

If you think Apple didn't owe anybody an apology then you don't know how corporate world works in competitive free markets.

yungporko3• 2 years ago

if you think the few people who were miffed about a lame advertisement could have any perceptible effect on apples bottom line whatsoever then i'd say it seems you know less about the market than i do.

havblue2• 2 years ago

I'm trying to put a pin in exactly why this is offensive. Yes, you do lose fidelity in digitizing an analog signal, but I don't think that's exactly the problem.

I think it's related to the fact that an ipad isn't just a tool. It's a branded consumer product that has a (relatively) short lifespan. When Apple Corp decides that the device will no longer be supported, it will crease it function. So buying a tablet isn't buying all those art supplies and instruments crammed into one device. You're buying a window into the Appleverse. And yeah I do think that's dystopian.

hbosch• 2 years ago

I'm trying to put a pin in exactly why this is offensive.

While the corporate read of this would be "look, we've crammed all this cool stuff into an impossibly thin device!", which was probably the marketing pitch... the subtext of an ad like to most regular people is "we are here to destroy and replace everything that you already love".

chefkd2• 2 years ago

That's what is confusing a little bit I wonder if people said that about horses when they were replaced by cars isn't the one thing that's constant in this world change? A whole ecosystem that relied on horses being the main mode of transportation died

colechristensen• 2 years ago

It’s offensive because the message is “we want to destroy all of these real things and replace them with a simulation that we sell you”. Apple is trying to kill the competition and the competition are now the people who make paintbrushes, violins, etc etc.

With more and more things being mass produced, simulated, and faked, people increasingly value things that feel “real”. Apple with this add is explicitly claiming to destroy the real and trying to sell that.

Tokkemon• 2 years ago

Bets on how some executive saw their kid really into the hydraulic press channels and said, "We gotta get in on this! Here's piles of money."

graypegg3• 2 years ago

Just on the meta-discussion of "who cares about dissecting some ad":

It's alright to consider implied meaning in media IMO. Just because it's misinterpreted by the standards of what the ad team wanted to accomplish, doesn't mean it WASN'T interpreted by people.

Maybe "outrage" is a bit useless if it's only there for screaming at people online, but talking about how crushing things that people love sends the wrong message, is a good thing for people to do. It's not exaggerating at all to me. A lot of people will see this ad spot, and each one is going to form some idea about what it means. That's a lot of power to give Apple.

beefnugs• 2 years ago

As easy as it is to interpret it as "fuck your cherished things! get indoctrinated by tech" It is just because tech's true colors have really exposed themselves as of late to be money grubbing criminals to the extreme. It is inevitable that any corporation of sufficient size (only acheivable by evil) will stop being able to be "cute" advertising anymore

graypegg3• 2 years ago

I could imagine some other ways of making this spot that I think would've changed the mood but still be cute. At a certain level of evil though, you have to poke at yourself.

Imagine some big team of apple engineers running around music halls and art galleries with notepads (or iPads with an apple pencil), taking notes on everything they see.

Cut back to factory, everyone is working on some comically Apple version of an artistic instrument. I'd absolutely get a laugh out of a big metal and glass piano or a solid aluminium canvas. These are obviously... framed as not ideal. Followed up by one of them frustratedly scrolling around on their iPhone in the break room, realizing lots of posts say "made on procreate on my iPad" or "garageband on iPad". Running back to the factory setting, hurriedly throwing everything in the crusher. Smush. New thin iPad.

havblue2• 2 years ago

I wonder if it's just about the ad or how we feel about the company. My uncontroversial opinion of apple is that they want us to spend as much of our lives in their hyperreal walled garden as possible. People might not have noticed if the ad was from, say, LG.

rqtwteye• 2 years ago

Does anybody actually watch ads? I think it’s been decades since I paid attention to an ad.

racl1013• 2 years ago

I think Apple needs to go back to Mac guy and PC guy and have Mac guy give a play by play of their intent. It's not very clear.

shwaj• 2 years ago

I like to think that there are subversives working in ad agencies and that such gaffes are intentional.

(I know it’s probably not true, it just makes the dystopia a bit more entertaining)

In this case the subtext would be something like: AI is coming and will provide all of the content for the rubes to consume on their shiny iPads, and damn the creatives who used to make a meaningful living creating it. But at least we can raise a middle finger via this ad, and mock the execs who okayed it!

elzbardico2• 2 years ago

That people think this is a real press, that this bunch of objects in a real press would behave exactly like that, shows how our society is increasingly disconnected from the real, physical world and have no fucking idea of how a factory looks like.

mdhb• 2 years ago

You are ironically doing the exact thing you are accusing others of but instead of being mad that people don’t know how a factory looks it’s you not understanding why people are upset at this and have very conveniently ended up at a position where:

- everyone who doesn’t like it is dumb

- you are a self proclaimed factory expert trying to pretend this is a physics argument which nobody claimed but you.

elzbardico2• 2 years ago

I don't care about the argument. I find it funny that a lot of people believe that a giant hydraulic press looks like that and is installed in an environment that looks like the engine room of a spaceship in a SciFi movie.

It is a tangent observation.

brandonmenc• 2 years ago

You are a hopeless, overreacting child if this ad bothers you.

I’m honestly shocked at the response I’m seeing here.

can16358p7• 2 years ago

Ssssh don't wake them up. They are just in the middle of their get-offended-by-literally-everything episode.

Amazing how people here on HN can be so... anyway I don't want a ban.

wouldbecouldbe2• 2 years ago

The irony is that it know kind of feels like more honest then it's supposed to be, digital tools, with Apple leading the charge, crushing traditional artistry & creativity.

logrot• 2 years ago

You know when you see someone getting hurt, like slipping on ice and smacking their head?

You can almost feel that pain reverb in your body, in a weird way.

I felt the same when I saw the ad. It's awful.

rybosworld• 2 years ago

Did the ad miss the mark or did it perfectly encapsulate Apple's vision of the future?

b1-88er• 2 years ago

Amazing how many people have strong feelings about an Ad about the iPad.

causality0• 2 years ago

Ads for multi-function products have featured the single-use products they're intended to replace being crushed, shoved into them, destroyed, thrown away, etc for decades. Artists are just extremely salty right now about being replaced by AI so they're sensitive.

https://suno.com/song/eceb91f0-7d9b-4029-ba19-24b6520dcf19

winddude• 2 years ago

Nothing like a commercial that say's we're going to make you a slave to our device and take away every human passion and pursuit of excellence. Brilliant strategy, wait nope... you're not supposed to let them know where the dark patterns lead.

greentxt• 2 years ago

It should have been going into the iPad, and then inside the iPad an expansive wonderland filled with all these great things. Opening, increasing, expanding.

They did the exact opposite lol. They smooshed into a smaller thing; decreasing, narrowing, reducing.

I think that may be their target demographic though. People who love apple want minimal, simple, less. So maybe it was genius after all. And they get free publicity because it’s controversial. Apple buyers will still buy the product. They want smooshed technology, or they’d be on Linux or Winblows.

Joel_Mckay• 2 years ago

The ad was strangely on brand for the process-centric parts of Apple that Steve Jobs oft lamented.

If the biggest feature is the form-factor, than your team now has two problems.

ted_bunny• 2 years ago

The controversy is on purpose. The apology was planned. You're all giving them extra bang for the advertising buck.

melenaboija• 2 years ago

For my taste, the artistic part of the ad works, the marketing part awful.

The music, photography, … definitely triggers something in me, but is creepy AF. The irony though, is that the creepy feeling is the reality to me, digital tools seem to be crushing the analog ones. And I don’t mean it as something bad as I am old, but it is how I feel about it.

brushfoot• 2 years ago

Apple won here. There will be no mass exodus, just engagement. That's what they aimed for, and that's what they got.

twodave• 2 years ago

Well I guess I’m just one of the ones who likes to watch the world burn. As a trumpet and guitar player, I watched that clip with great interest.

tsunamifury3• 2 years ago

This seems like apples version of planned controversy for marketing traction.

TaurenHunter• 2 years ago

I feel like Apple said the quiet part out loud: they intend to replace creativity and all that surrounds it with a consumer-ready wafer-like device, sort of a Soylent Green replacement for human ingenuity.

tsunamifury3• 2 years ago

The digital world is flattening our real experiences and selling the result back to you.

The entire ad is performance art. The artists made an illustration of cruelty, then got the company and CEO to not only approve it but post it on their twitter. It’s incredible. Banks himself couldn’t pull off such a thing.

I think a truly clever artist sold this under the radar to Apple and I applaud them.

dzink• 2 years ago

The ad did its job perfectly. It created controversy and that spread iPad news way further than paid ads do. It pays to be controversial, not good or on message these days.

Log_out_• 2 years ago

Should have reversed the add..

m3kw9• 2 years ago

The fact there is a huge backlash on something like this shows how much free time people have

ta1243• 2 years ago

Ironic there's an angry bird there. I'm sure I had angry birds on my phone years ago, and I assume I paid for it, but it no longer seems to exist.

It's not the only thing on my phone that has vanished. I had the recent monkey island, but that no longer exists

I don't do apps any more, I'm happy to buy things, but it seems people aren't willing to sell them any more.

outlore• 2 years ago

There are some videos going around on Twitter that show the Apple ad in reverse. It's kind of cool how that simple change also reverses the impression of destruction into one of creation and appreciation for the arts

ada19812• 2 years ago

I thought it was cool. A bunch of stuff that would end up in a land fill anyway. People love to be offended these days.. and then apologizing for an ad?

Apple went from 1984 to this…

CatWChainsaw5• 2 years ago

That iPad will end up in the same landfill in less time than the objects would have and be toxic to boot...

ada19812• 2 years ago

They have a pretty solid exchange / buy back program and are working toward 100% recycled materials.

Wild that some thrift store items are causing such a stir.

perfmode• 2 years ago

Perhaps it would have been palatable if the items had been compressed in a way that didn't seem destructive.

There may be a collective resistance to playful depictions of destruction, possibly as an energetic response to the pervasive images of destruction from conflicts in Ukraine, Israel, and Gaza. This may not be the appropriate time for such depictions.

1024core• 2 years ago

Everybody loves to get outraged over every little thing nowadays.

can16358p7• 2 years ago

I literally can't understand the mindset of people who get offended by an ad that crushes objects. Not animals, not humans, just objects to give a message, yet people get offended by this.

sombragris• 2 years ago

The ad is interesting because it is not exactly symbolic, but it's close to factual.

There is a sort of hydraulic press on Cupertino. It has crushed, among other things:

- 3.5mm headphone jack in cell phones - Physical keyboards in cell phones - Upgradeable RAM in laptops - User-replaceable batteries - Repairability

and other things, I'm sure.

tonymet• 2 years ago

I appreciate that consumers finally vocalized their concern over cynicism & nihilism in advertising. It's a long term , downward trend of misanthropy , banality & nihilism in advertising messaging.

Once you see it you can't unsee it. I hope this ad helps improve awareness.

mvkel2• 2 years ago

I haven't seen anywhere but maybe this thread knows: all those objects were CGI, surely, right?

Like I can't imagine it was possible to make the trumpet and other objects "crumple" at the perfect spot to not disrupt the Rube Goldberg crush cascade.

If the objects were real, they must have destroyed a lot of pianos.

sssilver• 2 years ago

I can't comprehend the hubris it took to conceive the idea that an iPad could replace an acoustic piano. Heck, not even a piano -- that an iPad could replace the sheet music on that piano, typeset and printed beautifully on a piece of paper that has infinite resolution and incredible texture when you touch it.

kernal2• 2 years ago

I like the fact that Apple left the ad up on YouTube. I was disappointed the comments were turned off as that would have been the real entertainment.

johnea• 2 years ago

Do people actually care about this?

Apple made a stupid commercial and everyone is traumatized?

WTF?

Simon_ORourke• 2 years ago

Will the marketing executive that green-lit this disaster face any career repercussions? I highly doubt it. Some junior VT tech will probably get all the blame and be forced to clear our their cubicle desk.

elevatedastalt5• 2 years ago

This is very cultural. Eastern cultures, for eg. Indian, Asian etc. place a lot of respect in objects associated with learning or education or creation even if they are just objects.

Indians never touch books with their feet, it's considered very disrespectful to the idea of education / learning, since a book is an embodiment of that. Likewise for musical instruments.

Western cultural prides itself on its irreverence for conventions like these. And everything is viewed from a lens of individual freedom.

fl0ki2• 2 years ago

Serious question: Did anyone already want to buy an iPad, but the ad made them not buy it in protest? I don't have the data, but I don't expect this to be very common.

I don't watch TV ads and if it wasn't for the controversy I probably wouldn't have known it even existed. Either way, I would choose based on specs and reviews, not whether an ad had the right subtext.

brrrrrm• 2 years ago

if anything the controversy increased sales. I watched the ad and thought it was pretty cool

kernal2• 2 years ago

The irony in the ad was monumental. Apple crushed perfectly working objects of creativity that would have lasted for decades and some even centuries for an iPad that will become e-waste in 5–10 years.

smsm422• 2 years ago

That ad is the most cringy ad I've seen for a long time, which is a hard bar to clear. It makes me physically uneasy.

And if you analyze it, it says "no matter who or what you are, a giant corporation would crush you and put you inside a very small shiny metal box, and you better like it".

martini333• 2 years ago

Classic "Someone should be offended", yet one one is.

snappr021• 2 years ago

An ironic way to say “Our devices are good. Put them down and go and play outside before the world around you disintegrates while you were distracted.”

nottorp• 2 years ago

I'm still waiting for the apologies for:

- dumbing down mac os to make it more ios like (where's my location manager in Sonoma?)

- having too low default ram in the base models (that one should be obvious)

- the thinness fetish (isn't it enough that the iPad Pro has the M4? why did they spend development resources to also make it the thinnest ever?)

wiseowise12• 2 years ago

Why didn’t they put their original Mac in there? Or an iPod?

tracerbulletx• 2 years ago

The iconography was very bad, but I thought it was kind of wild how many people were like "I now blame apple for all the bad things happening to creatives because of technology in general"

notfed• 2 years ago

1. "We apologize for this ad"

2. <keeps ad up on YouTube>

3. Profit

newobj• 2 years ago

They can never unring this bell in my mind

Madmallard• 2 years ago

I don’t understand the piano part like is there an app that does keyboard? Are they aware acoustic pianos sound better in person than any other piano sound implementation and it has basically always been that way?

fagrobot• 2 years ago

great ad. cucks being cucks in a cuck empowered world

NiloCK• 2 years ago

A stirring ad that captures my lived experience.

They should do a follow-up with my friendships and family life.

mjpuser• 2 years ago

I dunno I thought it was well done. This is an entertaining trend on social media and they applied it to their product well.

mrangle• 2 years ago

I loved the commercial. Apple shouldn't have apologized. There was no hidden meaning in it. People are psychotic.

adamtaylor_13• 2 years ago

I have been blown away by how badly people took this. I don’t mean to take away from them, I mean to highlight how fucking CLUELESS I must be. I thought it was a clever commercial and I understood the message as it was intended to be communicated.

It was very surprising to me when I started reading just how badly people hated it.

advisedwang• 2 years ago

What a bonanza of free air for Apple.

I would never have known about this product launch except for this brouhaha. Now I know their launch, the key feature their selling, and the concept backing it. What a coup for whoever is running this campaign.

An apology is a genius addition. More free coverage for them, and they get to "be doing the right thing" while getting it!

rchaud7• 2 years ago

This might be true if the person watching it had just been defrosted from cryogenic storage. Apple releasing another iPad update is not an uncommon occurrence.

jonahx• 2 years ago

My first thought as well was that all the reporting on this were obvious "submarine articles":

https://paulgraham.com/submarine.html

kbos87• 2 years ago

The inherent mistake here is that there are a lot of large but loosely affiliated groups represented by the crushed objects that are inevitably going to contain people looking to be offended by something.

colmmacc• 2 years ago

The iPad updates are 'meh', as is the whole line-up. This comes after the Vision Pro launches to a fizzle, and resorting to a massive share buy back to hold the stock value. In the last week I've seen more articles about Tim Cook succession than in all the time before. I bet inside Apple things feel they might need every bit of help to push revenue.

This ad has gotten Apple and the iPad an incredible amount of free media coverage; and they waited a few days for the apology ... which will now go on to do exactly the same. This seems like a very very successful campaign.

alex_young• 2 years ago

I don’t understand the outrage. Does anyone seriously think an iPad is going to replace a trumpet or a piano?

If you went out for dinner at a jazz place, would you accept the entertainment being someone fiddling with an iPad?

Somehow I don’t think musicians have much to worry about.

wnc31412• 2 years ago

If I were the advertising director - I would have people reach into the glass to take out large unwieldy instruments to expressively use them and then pack them all back into the glass of an iPad and walk off. This version suggests you are unlocking all of these instruments rather than destroying them .

yard2010• 2 years ago

Hey excuse me for being off topic but get your head out of your ass. This ad is nothing. Apple paid 500 billion dollars to buy back its own stocks and cancel them to manipulate the stock price.

This is backwards and I am terrifically shocked that such practice is legal.

This is wrong and evil.

giobox2• 2 years ago

Tangent, but related; I wish Apple would now stop shaving mm off the iPad's thickness and start improving battery life. It's been officially "up to 10 hours" since 2010 - 14 years.

I think it's the only compute device Apple sell that hasn't increased its Apple-rated battery runtime in the last 14 years.

I had zero complaints frankly about the previous generation M2 iPad Pro's thickness, it was already impressively thin! I'd much, much rather see battery runtime go up at this stage. That 10hrs number falls notably under heavy loads too. More battery is more headroom to run heavy applications or games away from a plug socket.

This advert's focus on thin just further reminds me that Apple have spent over a decade not improving iPad run-time.

LAC-Tech• 2 years ago

I'm just shocked apple thinks we need a thinner Ipad. What am I going to do with it, prepare food? Shave? Will I need to wear gloves to prevent lacerating my fingers?

datahack• 2 years ago

Much ado about nothing.

Didn’t LG do the exact same ad some years ago?

Seems like the real conversation here is about the total lack of originality here: this is so, so far from anything Steve would have approved.

jeffchien• 2 years ago

Apple isn't reading the room at a time when many older creatives (their customer base) feel threatened by generative AI.

ipaddr• 2 years ago

Would have been better to see these items coming from the phone and growing big.

blindriver• 2 years ago

I don't understand why they need to apologize for this.

At worst, it was a waste of a lot of money over things that seem pretty nice like a trumpet or a piano. Those could have been used by a school or something. And that's the worst criticism I could think of. If the entire thing were 3D graphics, then I actually would be extremely impressed.

Otherwise it's just an ad, and apologizing makes them look weak, not that it will affect them at all.

topaz0• 2 years ago

Too many people care about this.

hubert022• 2 years ago

It works, people are talking and will buy anyway

zhengiszen• 2 years ago

Not to diminish the other conflicts but currently the same process is applied to History, Justice and people, all are crushed without any remorse and it happens in Palestine.

neves• 2 years ago

Nice false polemic to make us watch the ad. It looks like the boring polemic of smashing digital representation of products is part of the advertising campaign.

iosjunkie• 2 years ago

I’m probably an asshole for thinking this, but we have gone soft.

dumpHero2• 2 years ago

Anyone who's worked in "creative" field and has stepped in an art gallery would tell you that it's very normal to play on emotions, exaggerate and make viewers feel intense emotions. I don't know who the apology is meant for.

i5heu• 2 years ago

You mean the proof that it is art is because ppl get angry about it?

It reminds me of "Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue"

Two of (3) them have been the subject of vandalistic attacks in museums.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who%27s_Afraid_of_Red,_Yellow_...

andrewp123• 2 years ago

Always a bad idea to destroy musical instruments.

footlose_3815• 2 years ago

Slow news day

khiner• 2 years ago

I thought it was epic, gorgeous, fun, and made total sense for the product! There are other pianos in the world. Like, a _lot_ of pianos in the world. It only stands to reason a few will get crushed in a massive hydraulic press for a fun ad.

XajniN• 2 years ago

This exaggerated sensitivity bulshit is becoming unbearable.

root_axis• 2 years ago

Who cares about this? I can't think of anything more unimportant and naval gazing than trying to extract subtext from an ad. Scrolling through the comments on this thread I'm genuinely surprised to see so much earnest rancor and performative outrage over a meaningless ad. Stop worshiping tech companies and go touch some grass.

theyinwhy• 2 years ago

The one thing really killing expression is constant outrage about everything. If everything you do is wrong, the only thing you can do is nothing.

hariis• 2 years ago

Just saying, I would have made something like, all these things slowly swirling and sucked into a black hole and at the singularity, you show the ipad :)

ksec• 2 years ago

The problem is Apple, for a long time, at least its image built during Steve Jobs era and carried over for quite some time he passed away. (Apple's PR still uses Steve Jobs's as a "tool" in marketing. ) Apple was the friend of Art and creative intent, NOT the digitalisation of everything, that was Microsoft in the 90s.

The bigger problem is that Apple has lost a lot of its soul. A lot of their marketing and advancement are now very technical, such as M4, XDR Retain etc. It feels very non-Apple. And they are at the forefront of trying to Digitalise everything. There is far less Art about it.

The iPad Pro pricing is also non-Apple as if the iPad Pro isn't really for professional usage. And just look at the Apple Pencil Page [1], what happened to slim lineup and forward looking product planning.

A lot of the current Apple just lacks the character and soul of the old Apple, and are now mostly driven by sales and operation efficiency.

[1] https://www.apple.com/shop/select-apple-pencil

unreal37• 2 years ago

Since Apple apologized for the ad, it seems they, too, agree that it wasn't a good ad.

They wouldn't apologize for something if there were nothing wrong with it.

Personally, it was too real. It was CGI, sure. But that hydraulic press crushed (destroyed) the tools humans use to create every handmade thing we consider beautiful.

Apple absolutely intended to convey the meaning that Apple an iPad can replace a piano or a trumpet or paint.

young_unixer• 2 years ago

Apple, and west coast US companies in general, are the biggest promoters of political over-correctness, "inclusion", "diversity", etc. (to put it in non-offensive terms).

It would be extremely hypocritical for them to simply dismiss the feelings of people. So, even if it doesn't make sense, they're obligated to apologize to be consistent with their own discourse.

kristjank• 2 years ago

We really should get telling people to kill themselves back into fashion when they produce such culturally deaf and offensive content just to promote the newest consooomerism gadget. I hate everything this whole phenomena represents

the_real_cher• 2 years ago

I thought the ad was pretty cool and I'm a musician.

rootusrootus• 2 years ago

I don't find it offensive, but I do think the idea would have worked better if they visualized it as a compactor, and didn't visualize things getting destroyed. It doesn't make sense to focus on all the destruction and then be left over with a fancy iPad. It's a compact version of a whole bunch of destroyed things?

j7ake• 2 years ago

They’re “apologising” but really their ad did the job: people are talking about Apple and their new products.

They’re not sorry, they’re happy.

CM30• 2 years ago

I honestly don't see what's so controversial here. For me, it's just another expression of the idea "you can do all this on a tiny device now". Kinda like that infamous Pokemon Red and Blue ad with the bus driver:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzAo9HzOgtQ

Or the other ads by companies like LG mentioned in the comments showing the same premise. Just feels like people are looking for things to get offended by now, and reading way too much into a simple concept that's been done to death.

naruhodo• 2 years ago

This seems like a thinly-veiled ruse to make me watch the 'Crush' ad for the first time. It worked.

hi-v-rocknroll4• 2 years ago

I don't understand why Cook apologized. It was bold in the style of the 1984 ad.

People today leap to feigning victimhood and can't seem to grasp that it was likely mostly or entirely fictional CGI.

justanotherjoe• 2 years ago

If any other company does it, their user wont care. Apple is special because it really is a form of self-induced-hypnosis of the 'magic of apple', which is what people buy into. This ruins the illusion, so to speak.

bhearu• 2 years ago

I think the blow back from this is due to people over thinking and looking for something to be upset about. The "symbolism" in the ad isn't creative tools being destroyed, it's the tools being combined together.

barrenko• 2 years ago

We are "reacting" to iPad ads, and not "reacting" to say, climate change, inflation, teen mental health...

tsoukase• 2 years ago

A thousand iPads cannot offer the experience of a single piano key. And vice versa. So the direct comparison the ad is implying is failed. It could involve 1000 old mobile phones or 100 DSLR cameras or 10 PCs. But then it would be uninteresting and nobody would care

dudeinjapan2• 2 years ago

So that's how they make it so thin!!

dudeinjapan2• 2 years ago

They should have made it with teleporters that beam the items into the iPad. For some reason we don't think of teleporters as destructive (when in actuality they shred their targets down to the individual atom level.)

avereveard• 2 years ago

People outraged by the piano and not at the suicide nets must be the new consumerism peak, albeit my belief is that this campaign is just part of the overall marketing strategy, an apology before the outrage.

eddyzh• 2 years ago

And because of the pushback the ad is talked about and watched even more. I am sure this was anticipated and taken as calculated decision.

Whatever your response, the product and brand is so big that the point that the ad wants to make remains.

There is no such thing as bad publicity when your goal is getting attention.

I personally find it very rude.

Marketing wise doing rude things is smart.

huimang• 2 years ago

There is something deeply, viscerally upsetting about watching creative objects get destroyed by an industrial machine. I understand what they were going for, but I can't believe this got greenlighted.

The symbolism of physically destroying a handmade instrument or a precision-made item like a camera lens is unbelievably disgusting. On top of that, the current era we're in has artists fearing for the future as generative AI (which is trained on stolen artwork by humans) is coming to replace their livelihood.

All I can do is shake my head and wonder why tech people have such utter contempt and disdain for artists.

noashavit2• 2 years ago

Why did they have to go and ruin the piano tho?

noashavit2• 2 years ago

Tariffs aren’t bans. It’s just tax. There are many countries that currently have 100% tariffs on imported cars and ppl still import those cars

Apple apologizes for iPad 'Crush' ad that 'missed the mark'

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