Apple, a company largely famous for its effective and stylish marketing, crushed it with its most recent announcement—literally, but not metaphorically.
To promote its new ultra-thin iPads, the tech giant on Tuesday released an ad in which an industrial press crushes a series of creative objects to create a new iPad.
The iPad Pro ad features some of the greatest tools of art—books, paint cans, statues, musical instruments including a piano, an old-model television, and an arcade machine—being pulverized into oblivion to the joyful tune of “All I” by Sonny & Cher. What you always need is you.”
“Imagine all the things that will be used to create,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook. wrote in X Tuesday in a post with a video of the commercial.
Although the company is often praised for its clever marketing, many people on social media were quick to criticize the commercial, calling it “destructive” and saying that it is an “Overwhelming symbol of human creativity and cultural achievement to attract professional creators.”
An Apple spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday on the reaction.
Cook’s X post had racked up 19.3 million views as of Wednesday. Much of the engagement came from responses and comment posts from users, some of whom went so far as to tell Apple that it should do this. Take out the ad and cut it out.
“This ad is (unintentionally) a perfect metaphor for today’s creative dark age: compressing organic instruments, joyful/imperfect machines, tangible art, our entire physical reality into a soulless, postmodern, read-only device, a multibillion-dollar corporation controls what you have to see,” Adam Singer, vice president of marketing at advertising technology company AdQuick, published in X.
“I can’t believe Apple ran such an out-of-touch commercial that treats devices Steve Jobs would have appreciated as garbage,” so does Eric Newcomer, who runs a technology-focused newsletter and events company. published in X.
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One x user said The new ad is a “bookend” to the ad the company launched in 1984 to introduce its first Macintosh computer. In that commercial, a woman dressed in bright orange shorts walks through a creepy scene from George Orwell’s “1984” that shows rows of people dressed in gray watching propaganda on a screen. She throws an ax to break the screen, apparently freeing them from her trance.
“1984: A monochromatic, conformist and industrial world exploited by a colorful and vibrant human being,” the user wrote. “2024: Colorful and vibrant humanity is crushed by a monochromatic and conformist industrial press.”
Apple is still a technology giant. While it has faced some challenges related to declining iPhone sales, it remains among the most profitable companies in the world.
But he has faced some questions about where he is headed. The company’s newest product, Apple Vision Pro, failed to meet the company’s expectations.
The new iPads, launched Tuesday, feature a new Apple chip and a new screen, in addition to their extreme thinness. iPad sales represent a small portion of the company’s total revenue.
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