Apple's announcement of the new iPad Pro M4 during Tuesday's "Let Loose" event has garnered some flak in the days following the company's decision to market its latest tablet in a way deemed offensive to creatives.
So much so, that the company's VP of Marketing, Tor Myhren, was dispatched to quell the heated reaction, confessing to Ad Age that the company “Missed the mark with this video, and we’re sorry.”
Apple isn't exactly a brand you'd associate with making apologies all too often, Steve Jobs' "Just avoid holding it in that way" comment regarding reception issues with 2010s iPhone 4 being an infamous example of its reluctance to bend the knee to complaints.
So, when the company was quick to bust out the apologies, you'd be easily convinced that they were well and truly in the wrong about something. Although I watched the event as it happened, I decided to return to the vignette in question and share it here so we could all better understand the gravity of the situation.
Did you see it? Don't worry if you didn't catch it the first time around. Try again, if you have the time. How about now, anything? No?
Well, good. I'm glad it's not just me.
Apple did nothing wrong
Try as I might, I failed to spot any point of contention within Apple's "Crush!" ad, which shows a series of creative tools, assets, and instruments placed beneath an industrial compactor and compressed into the thin and sleek form of its latest iPad Pro, all to the tune of Sonny and Cher's All I Ever Need Is You.
Trust me, I tried. I'm more than happy to take a playful jab at Apple when the opportunity arises, they're pretty hardy and they can handle it. However, I don't see anything wrong here and I feel a little left out.
While everybody is busy clutching their pearls and swooning, I'm trapped down here in the basement office staring at a poster that reads "I want to believe."
Everywhere I look there's grumbling about the content of this video, even the replies to Tim Cook's post on X featuring the video are bustling with people upset with Apple's marketing.
Meet the new iPad Pro: the thinnest product we’ve ever created, the most advanced display we’ve ever produced, with the incredible power of the M4 chip. Just imagine all the things it’ll be used to create. pic.twitter.com/6PeGXNoKgGMay 7, 2024
Some people say it is the excessive destruction of expensive things, others say it's not about the destruction but the message behind it, and some claim Apple to be engaged in demonic inversion.
Even actor Hugh Grant popped up to voice his opinion, referring to Apple's ad as "The destruction of the human experience." Honestly, people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones, this is the man who starred in Mickey Blue Eyes, remember.
Has it been a slow news week, maybe? Why is everybody so up in arms about a smashed piano and a few burst tins of paint? If there's anything at all to complain about when it comes to Apple's new "Crush!" ad, it's that LG beat Apple to the punch by making practically the same video in 2008 for its KC910 Renoir phone.
However, people seem intent on clinging to the notion that Apple's advert is somehow "hostile" to creators.
Call me crazy, but I'm fairly certain the point of the ad is to showcase all of the things Apple has managed to 'cram' into its thinner and more powerful iPad Pro to empower creatives, no?
Now, should Apple's ad have showcased only the crushing of these instruments and supplies before holding the iPad Pro up in front of the camera and claiming "It's all you'll ever need, the rest of these things are trash!" you might have something to get slightly up in arms about.
But that's not what happened, and nor is it anywhere near close to a good faith interpretation reading of Apple's intentions.
The destruction of the human experience. Courtesy of Silicon Valley. https://t.co/273XB3CfnFMay 8, 2024
Outlook
If crimes against musical instruments are the internet's latest cause to rally around, it's going to be a busy few months ahead as we systematically cancel just about every rock band, alive or dead, to have performed live over the last four decades.
Then again, I have seen the argument made that it's okay when this happens, or when things are destroyed in Hollywood movies because that's an act of creative expression. Seemingly, Apple's well-shot and visually interesting metaphor doesn't qualify for such exemptions, because... Reasons?
Maybe tech companies simply had their artistic license revoked one day while I was busy looking at my watch. However, I would've assumed Apple would remain, this is the company that is largely and routinely praised for its works-of-art product design and branding, after all.
To answer the calls that Steve Jobs wouldn't have done this, let me be frank, Steve Jobs would've done whatever Steve Jobs wanted to do. Apple's only mistake in this process was actually apologizing because if Steve Jobs was still around and you had any complaints to make about a short video clearly showing all the things you can 'fit' inside an iPad Pro, he'd have likely told you that you were interpreting it wrong.
