Apple has faced backlash online over an ad for its new iPad that features an industrial-sized hydraulic press crushing a collection of objects and devices, including musical instruments and books.
The ad, released by Apple CEO Tim Cook on Tuesday, shows the machine smashing a variety of items, from a piano and a metronome to paint cans and an arcade game, before a single iPad Pro appears. instead. . Then a voiceover says, “The most powerful iPad ever is also the thinnest.”
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. Imagine all the things it will be used for. pic.twitter.com/6PeGXNoKgG
-Tim Cook (@tim_cook) May 7, 2024
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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. Imagine all the things it will be used for. pic.twitter.com/6PeGXNoKgG
-Tim Cook (@tim_cook) May 7, 2024
The implication that an iPad can compress humanity’s cultural prowess into an object 5mm deep was seen differently by commentators on social media. Actor Hugh Grant. wrote in X that the ad represented “the destruction of the human experience, courtesy of Silicon Valley.”
Justine Bateman, an American filmmaker who criticized the impact of artificial intelligence on her industry, wrote in X: “Why did Apple make an ad that crushes the arts? “Technology and AI mean destroying the arts and society in general.”
Unfavorable comparisons were also made to Ridley Scott’s book. Apple Macintosh advertisement from 1984which portrayed an Orwellian future challenged by a sledgehammer-wielding heroine and had the tagline “you’ll see why 1984 won’t be like ‘1984’.”
Christopher Slevin, creative director at British marketing agency Inkling Culture, wrote on LinkedIn: “Apple seems to have become Big Brother, subtly shaping our digital lives in ways we may not fully understand or choose to ignore. “The new iPad Pro ad, while impressive, hints at a future in which our creativity will be limited to digital screens and everything physical will be crushed under the relentless advance of technology.”
Paul Graham, a Silicon Valley investor, wrote in X that Apple co-founder Steve Jobs “wouldn’t have run that ad.” He added: “It would have hurt too much to see it.”
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Apple has been contacted for comment.