Apple has apologised for its “Crush” advert that was released to celebrate the launch of the new iPad Pro model. The advert was highly criticised by the creative community. It shows a number of creative tools being crushed by a hydraulic press only for the machine to open up with an iPad Pro in the centre.
Apple had good intentions with the ad. It was meant to showcase all the various creative possibilities of the new super-thin iPad Pro. Objects that get crushed include a Piano, record player, paint barrels and even squishy balls (which are seemingly stress balls).
Sadly, the creative ad rubbed creative people the wrong way. Some creatives believe that the advert represents the “killing of the creative tool industry” in favour of a digital one. This is something that has slowly been happening for some time now and if anything, is a sensitive topic.
Hugh Grant called the advert a “destruction of human experience”. Director Reed Morano tagged Apple CEO Tim Cook in an X post saying “Read the room”. In response to the negativity, Apple released a statement to Ad Age. The statement comes from Apple’s Vice President of marketing Tor Myhren who said:
“Creativity is in our DNA at Apple, and it’s incredibly important to us to design products that empower creatives all over the world/. Our goal is to always celebrate the myriad of ways users express themselves and bring their ideas to life through iPad. We missed the mark with this video, and we’re sorry.”
I think the ad has been brilliantly shot given its controversial themes. However, I do understand the negative sentiment regarding the message. Give it a watch below:
Source: Ad Age
