Photo Credit: Apple
Apple’s latest iPad Pro commercial stirred up quite a storm. In this ad, the company showcased its ultra-thin iPads by using an industrial crushing machine to compress various creative objects as "All I Ever Need is You" played in the background . These objects included books, paint cans, statues, musical instruments including a piano, an old model TV and an arcade game.
Apple CEO Tim Cook shared the video on social media, expressing excitement about the iPad’s creative potential. "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," The CEO wrote on X
However, not everyone was impressed. Critics called the ad “destructive” and accused it of “crushing creativity.” "The destruction of the human experience. Courtesy of Silicon Valley," Hugh Grant commented.
"Like iPads but don’t know why anyone thought this ad was a good idea. It is the most honest metaphor for what tech companies do to the arts, to artists, musicians, creators, writers, filmmakers. Squeeze them, use them, not pay well, take everything then say it’s all created by them," filmmaker Asif Kapadia weighed in.
Interestingly, some users drew parallels between this ad and Apple’s iconic 1984 commercial. In the 1984 ad, a woman dressed in bright orange shorts breaks free from a monochrome, conformist world by smashing a screen displaying propaganda.
“If you thought this IPad ad was weird, you should have seen the first cut where they lined up all your favorite characters and shot them,” Luke Barnett wrote on X.
Beyond advertising controversies, Apple has faced internal challenges. Employees organized under the hashtag #AppleToo to share experiences of inequity, intimidation, and abuse within the company. Additionally, in 2022, Apple workers pushed back against the company’s return-to-office orders.
