Apple’s advertising campaign for its upcoming iPad Pro sparked outrage, with people accusing the company of being tone-deaf, including actor Hugh Grant, who declared the “destruction of the human experience.” The negative reactions have since pushed the tech giant to apologize.
On May 7, Apple CEO Tim Cook took to his X page (formerly known as Twitter) to share the tech firm’s new commercial.
Highlights
- Apple apologized for an iPad ad after global outrage, including criticism from Hugh Grant.
- The ad depicted the destruction of creative tools, ending with an unscathed iPad Pro.
- The criticism focused on the ad being tone-deaf and diminishing human creativity.
He captioned the clip: “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.”
Apple's new iPad Pro advertisement faced backlash
Image credits: Sami Abdullah
The video showcased an array of human creativity tools, from musical instruments like trumpets, guitars, and a piano to art supplies like paint cans and a clay sculpture.
As an industrial crusher descends, it destroys all the objects, capturing graphic details of their destruction: collapsing pianos, exploding guitar strings, splattering paint cans, and disintegrating sculptures.
The climax reveals an unscathed Apple iPad Pro amid the wreckage, symbolizing the device's capacity to encompass all these creative tools.
Image credits: Apple
Nevertheless, the campaign didn’t impress certain viewers, many of whom were artists concerned about the impact of artificial intelligence.
“You destroyed all the creative tools and effort of humans. Worst. Commercial. Ever,” an X user argued.
Another person commented: "Crushing symbols of human creativity and cultural achievements to appeal to pro creators, nice."
The outrage prompted an apology from CEO Tim Cook
Image credits: Apple
“Maybe for the next Apple Watch Pro, you should crush sports equipment, show a robot running faster than a man, then turn to the camera and say, ‘God is dead and we have killed him.’”
Someone else wrote: “The symbolism of indiscriminately crushing beautiful creative tools is an interesting choice.”
Image credits: HackedOffHugh
People accused the commercial of being tone-deaf and diminishing the human experience
Image credits: Apple
A separate individual chimed in: “I'm a creator, a traditional artist, a Macintosh user of many years, yet I never even understand why would I need an iPad, and this destruction is extremely distasteful and would never convince me but otherwise.”
Even Hugh Grant inserted his anger, as he reshared the post, writing: "The destruction of the human experience. Courtesy of Silicon Valley."
Image credits: Apple
You can watch the ad below:
Image credits: Apple
With backlash growing, Apple’s vice president of marketing communications, Tor Myhren, apologized in a statement shared on AdAge on May 9:
“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.”
"Hugely symbolic of AI," a reader commented
