The ad itself depicted a mechanical crusher destroying artifacts of human creativity. A trumpet, guitar, sculpture, piano, drawing board, paints, a metronome, several analog cameras, a turntable, and hi-fi equipment were among the much-loved items yielding to the machine’s unstoppable force.
This whole outcry is a joke.
They’re symbolizing all the creative things, that they just talked about, that you can do with the iPad.
If you got Apple is “destroying creativity” from that, you A) only saw the clip or B) are searching for problem.
If you got Apple is “destroying creativity” from that, you A) only saw the clip or B) are searching for problem.
The outcry’s not really Apple, but tech in general. The backlash of crushing the human experience is the transition from valuing true art and creativity, and just lurching toward yet another do-everything screen that doesn’t compliment creativity, but instead displaces it, with the hint of incoming generative AI.
Apple really doesn’t give a fuck about art, creativity, expression, or for that matter quality anymore. They’re good at making a thing that sells, they’re good at marketing it, and they’re good at convincing people of the cost vs worth equation that gives them insane margins over their chic branding. I love the outcry not because of any validity behind the detriment of tablets and smartphones (which is absolutely there) but moreso because it’s entertaining when a company renowned for their advertising prowess fucks up so publicly then backpedals with apologies.
Good times, and fuck Apple.
Yeah, I’m no marketing guru, but I feel their actual point would have been better conveyed by a pile of all of the things the iPad replaced slowly gathering dust, spider webs, and eventually archaeologists.
I think it’s supposed to be inflammatory so that we all talk about it and make it viral. This isn’t the first time Apple has done this.
Especially considering this ad from LG in 2008.
I’ll try to explain this to you - the video shows crushing of plethora of sophisticated, subtle, powerful instruments and then says you can replace them all with Apple’s picture poking thing. The preciousness of that thing is not shown to us. The preciousness of those instruments is implied, because we know what they are.
We literally see the precious being crushed and some shit being offered instead after crushing it. Like “I broke all your toys cause I think this one is better and you are going to like it”.
The absolute worst, most annoying thing about every Apple advert and the day-long adverts - the launch day events, is the freaking hyperbole.
(breathlessly exclaim:) The fastest ever. The thinnest ever. More cameras than ever! The most ever ever!
Breathtaking vividly bright Applewordsalad display technology
My coworker is fully bought in to the ecosystem, so I get the full experience every launch day. Listen critically sometime. Turn on your bullshit filter. It’s a fun game.
Apple popularised two things that bug the shit out of me in addition to everything you said. “on iPhone” “on iPad” just sounds utterly wrong. It needs to be “on the iPhone” “on the iPad”. Now everyone is doing it.
The other is " breathlessly were excited to announce/we’re excited to share with you/we’re excited!!!big fucking cheesy grin". The whole point of having that whole “excited” or whichever adjective you want at that point of the sentence is to prep you and let you know what you’re supposed to feel. If it’s that good surely you shouldn’t have to tell me what I need to feel.
It’s because they’re trying to instill in your mind that you’re getting into an ecosystem. A way of life, even.
“XYZ on the iPhone” just makes it sound like an appliance.
“XYZ on iPhone” makes it sound like it’s an ecosystem. An experience. Something to be part of.
It’s a very deliberate (though subtle) marketing choice that I believe impacts how people view the brand.
Why is thinnest ever placed in such high regard? Have you seen how ridiculous the new iPad Pro looks when the Pencil is attached to it for charging?
I think I’m in the vocal minority in that I really don’t give a shit about thin, especially if it affects performance, repairability, or battery life.
I got a pixel 8.
I’m really enjoying it.
But the camera doubles the thickness of the phone where it is.
And the case I have for it just gave up, and made the whole phone+case that thickness.
I’d have liked the actual phone to be that big, have a bit more battery - maybe even replaceable battery, a 3.5mm jack at stuff like that.
At some point, things get too thin to hold and use comfortably. I think the Nintendo switch highlights this, whereas the steam deck is much more comfortable to hold.What case is that? I was thinking of getting the Pixel 8 and was looking for a case like you describe but didn’t find any
They’re trying to beat paper
In 2007 I had a Gateway convertible computer. This thing was like 14 or 15 inches screen size, it had to have weighed 5 pounds with the battery attached, closed and without worrying about the battery’s additional thickness it had to have been an inch and a half thick. The thing is, it worked fine.
The Dell Inspiron that replaced it has one of those soft shell lithium batteries that inevitably bulge and stop the trackpad from clicking, there’s a fan that scrapes its housing because of how tight the clearances have to be…all so the thing can be about a half inch thick? Why?
Some nut: I haven’t been mad today. I need something to be mad about.
Apple launched an ad.
The nut: perfect.
they should have run the commercial in reverse.
Yup and then have something like “all of this creativity in one compact device. The all new iPad”
Or simply squish them like they were rubber instead of destroying them.
I actually did not know that Tim Cook is a christian nut job.
Isn’t he gay?
You can’t be gay and a devout Christian. God said so.
I actually think that’s perfectly possible because to be a christian you have to already be in denial about a whole boatload of things, so really… what’s one more? And as a bonus “my own people hate me” fits nicely with the whole christian guilt thing.
Tim Cook trying to cater to everyone possible
Yeah, what surprised me most about the posted article was the Jesus fish on his phone case.
The Register calls it Xitter? epic
Is it pronounced “shitter”?
Of course.
lmao that headline
Seriously, everyone is going to forget about this in a week. Regardless of how you feel about Apple, one slightly tonedeaf ad isn’t going to significantly affect their reputation.
It’s little things like that that add up and move a brand reputation one way or the other.
It kinda reminded me of those old PS3 commercials that David lunch directed. Kinda liked it, tbh
Different time, different audience. This would have been a better commercial for a property insurance company.
They should go super meta with it and crush Apple products in an ad for AppleCare.
Oh, that would be good.
Can we just STFU about this mediocre ad already? You’re giving it more airtime and more mental bandwidth. I didn’t think it was worth one day of headlines much less two or three.
I’m about to block this community for a week or something, then resubscribe.
I mean I’m kidding, but I’ve seen more shit about this ad that I’ve never seen over the past three days than any actual ads of any type.
Ignoring things like this is how we’ve ended up with an entire generation of people who Apple thinks are either too lazy or too stupid to create art or music on their own.
Note that I am not calling anyone lazy or stupid, I’m just stating Apple thinks this is a desirable outcome and is pushing forward with that plan
Not everyone has the physical talent, space, and time to learn to play an instrument.
Between working two jobs, never paying off student loans, unobtainable housing, and medical bankruptcy, yeah you’re right. Let’s just get our dopamine fix and be content with our squalor.
Sounds like a you problem. Don’t piss on everyone else’s parade.
What’s “physical talent”?
Having arms to play a guitar.
Great point. Not a lot of people have time and two arms
Assuming you’re being condescending, some people don’t have the physical capability to plan an instrument. That should stop them from having apps to create music just because a small handful of people who dislike Apple are offended by a commercial that was largely computer generated.
There are plenty of other things about Apple we could be complaining about.
My dude. You are so close to getting the point son. We are on the same page
Great counter-point. So we are offended by a commercial AND calling for a ban on differently abled people from using music creation apps! How many differently abled people in your life would love a $1000 iPad designed for an able bodied person? Or would they want something designed with them in mind? Speaking of condescending. "Sounds like a you problem. Don’t piss on everyone else’s parade. “I think a lot of people here are confused and angry at clouds” “I’m sorry your music career didn’t pan out after all that work. Not everyone can be a musician.”
Dis you?
Just thought I’d drop in to say, it’s possible to play it with your feet.
Clearly they shouldn’t be allowed to have an iPad right?
My dude! So good
So the solution to that is to only make paint-by-numbers music that Apple will allow you to make with their pre approved apps? That sounds like a good way to end up with a lot of mediocre easily digestible music that all sounds the same…
There are plenty of apps that let you do your own thing. Don’t blame the software for musicians being derivative. People have created amazing digital music with significantly less technology. Maybe you just don’t like that people without a formal background (rich people) have the opportunity to make bad (and good) music.
It sounds like your only problem is that you have to use the App Store. So what app was denied by Apple but is available on Android? Yeah, I didn’t think so.
I think somebody here is mixing up performing music and composing it. Which have almost nothing in common.
I haven’t touched Apple stuff for composition (don’t even know what it is), but I seriously doubt it’s going to take away all the headache of learning music theory.
And when you do know music theory, you can use plenty of things for digital music. It’s just hard.
I think a lot of people here are confused and angry at clouds.
So right. I saw a DJ playing incredible chiptune off’a two original brick gameboys and two LSDJs and it was absolutely amazing. I wish I had the skill to do that.
Have you heard the music they made from programming floppy drives to read music at different speeds?
I have been playing guitar for nearly 20 years. My family has never been rich, which meant I got the most affordable guitar available (which cost MUCH less than an iPad even accounting for inflation) when I started.
I knew absolutely nothing about how to play it and taught myself for the first year from stuff I found in magazines. When it became apparent that I wasn’t going to just abandon the thing in the closet my parents agreed to get me lessons for this costly sum of $25 a week.
Since then I have have scrimped and saved to get nicer instruments when I could afford them, and they mean a lot to me so I take care of them and play them often.
When making music becomes reduced to a game from WHICHEVER app store, it loses all meaning because there is zero invested in it. I’m sure there will be a few people who actually manage to make real music this way despite the limitations, but for most people it will just be a toy they lose interest in like Candy Crush or something.
If it were easy to play decent music then everyone in the world would have a top 10 hit
I’m sorry your music career didn’t pan out after all that work. Not everyone can be a musician.
Ah, just going straight into troll mode now huh? That’s too bad, I was enjoying our conversation…
Does anyone know an even slighty successful musician who uses a 5 year old iPad? Now, are there any slightly successful musicians that we can think of that use a 5 year old (affordable) guitar? Or a 5 year old computer? How about a cheap drum machine or sequencer? How about giving a kid anything but a $1000 iPad (or a 5 year old paperweight)
First I’ve heard of it and you know, you can just ignore it lol. Yet you took the time to make a comment and… complain about talking about it?
I have to read the headline to ignore it. That puts the ad in my brain, which is what the purpose of the ad is. The post itself is doing advertising despite being negative. I don’t want to think about ads. Fuck em.
Agreed. People like to get upset over nothing. It’s a stupid commercial that landed poorly. Someone in the marketing department has way too much control and probably didn’t do a very good focus group for this.
There are plenty of other things about Apple we could be complaining about.
This person’s comment is all that anybody needs to know about this situation.
That’s what IPads are made of
Save us 5 years. Just put the new ipad into e-waste collection now. Meanwhile, anyone want to use all the real tools designed specifically to make music? Any kid with half a brain will spend their $1000 musicmaking budget on something useful
I just watched it for the first time and… I really enjoyed it. It’s a little off-brand for Apple, but a great ad overall.
I just watched it for the first time and… I thought that while the handwringing is excessive, the subtext that all these other emblems of human creativity have to be destroyed to become part of the iPad is unsettling, moreso because the visuals are so decadent in their detail. It makes it feel much more like replacing than supplementing. It’s probably worse that I think it was also unintentional. Big miss for me.
These are the kind of ads you make when you have a profound lack of self-awareness.
“What’s a computer?”
Hideous
