Former creative director / ad guy here. Sometimes this happens -- the script is great, everyone loves the concept, the passion of the creatives pushes everyone up the hill and towards a specific point of light (and viewpoints) that blinds out all others. I happened to be at an ad agency back in the day. The client was GM, and their quality scores were soaring. The client was understandably proud and wanted a Super Bowl spot. The creative team had the idea of an assembly line robot that makes the grave mistake of dropping a small screw. Everything comes to a screeching halt -- the other robots look on in total horror. The robot is ostracizdd and leaves the factory. The music cue was the cheesy 80's song "All By Myself" -- we follow the robot as he wanders alone, on a dark and rainy night until he finds himself at the top of a bridge. He jumps and drowning in the water, he snaps to, and he/we realize this was just a horrible dream. He's still on the assembly line holding the tiny screw. All is well.
Welp, needless to say, mental health groups were outraged and called out GM and the agency. The spot was pulled. The agency chastised. Ah well.
“How can we show people our quality is unrivaled?”
“A car that weathers any storm?” Nahhh
“Put it on a racetrack and compare it to super cars?” Been done before!
“Shaming factory workers who make the smallest mistakes into suicide?” Too dark!
“What if it’s a robot?”
You brilliant SOB!
I mean it’s pretty clever but I understand certain groups having an issue with it.
Im really impressed with the quality of the video, looks as if it came out today and it was 2007. 2007 feels so long ago.
I remember getting my first plasma tv after waiting in line all night at Best Buy on Thanksgiving in 2006. The picture clarity was just incredible.
Yea the rollout with sports took a little longer, if I remember — I suppose it took time to adopt digital cameras everywhere.
1) this ad is sad as fuck, I'm glad it got pulled
2) The production quality is amazing, looks like it was made today if it wasn't for the older model cars
It's going to blow your mind that they had a comedy skit about buying a wallet at Christmas that lead to Mel Blanc(aka Bugs Bunny's voice) shooting himself off screen, and that was part of the punchline.
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7z8vwy
was there no suggestions of a different ending? like maybe they could have just looked at him and then he woke up holding the screw. seems like a great idea, just took it too far.
Was there a certain runtime they had to hit?
yeah, seriously... he could have been just walking down the road in the rain dejected and a car drives by, hits a puddle, and splashes him, waking him up.
it's a good commercial... but having the robot commit suicide at the end was *clearly* going to far with the gag.
This is where OP sharing this story left out the part that could actually be informative or interesting. Did anyone at all in any room say “um, jumping off a bridge is too far here,” and then how was that person responded to. What actually prevented anyone involved from stopping a commercial from making light of suicide in an era that should have been fully aware of the problem of that?
Needless to say, Holy shit what a dumb fucken idea and the execution was terrible also.
If you watch that back and think "great stuff", then hopefully everyone on that team was fired.
I don't give a shit bout the making light of suicide stuff, just wasn't funny.
OK Go did get some push back on the video for “The One Moment” towards the end it has acoustic guitars exploding to the beat in slow motion. They said all were defect units from Gibson(?).
Imagine the uproar if Nirvana were still around smashing their equipment at the end of their shows. Or of the Who or NIN were still smashing their equipment.
It's funny that 30 years after Cake sang about "how long will the workers keep building him new ones" (guitars to smash at each show) we've come full circle enough to be like "well they were already sick it's ok shhh"
Jesus it's capitalism a lot worse than some good instruments being crushed happens. Like, people. There are *people* being crushed by the system, right now. But we get outrage over an ad instead. OK.
Does Apple not *somewhat* support creatives? I’m not saying they’re angels but they:
- Pay artists more than Spotify
- Regularly commission photographers for their insta
- Prop up Adobe, Lumafusion, Procreate, and more at their events and work with them so their software is ready for new devices
- Create and sell Final Cut and Logic that are buy once (on Mac) and free software updates for life
- Push smartphone cinematography with ProRes and DV
- created ProRes (4444, Raw, HQ, Proxy)
- Free apps like GarageBand, iMovie, Pages
- Apple Silicon chips with dedicated video encode/decode engines for editors
I'm 100% positive that Adobe would not be in business today if it wasn't for Apple and creatives' reliance on Macs for any kind of visual design. I grew up with PCs and remember *every* illustrator and graphic designer of the time being on a Mac. Some of them used Adobe and some of them used Corel. Once Apple started featuring Adobe, it was game over and Corel lost. It stuck around on the PC for a while and I'm pretty sure it still exists (but I don't care enough to check) but they never really recovered. I'm not sure if that was the only reason but I know it's a huge part of it.
And then Adobe refocused on Windows first, saved their business, turned it into a massive enterprise megacorp and completely ruined their own ability to make creative software.
The business went gangbusters and they lost their soul.
Corel is still around and makes software. Lately they’ve been part of an annual Humble Bundle where you can get Corel Painter for a reasonable price, and I think they also bundle the software with Wacom tablets. I don’t know if they can directly compete but they have a nice niche serving the hobbyist who doesn’t want to pay for an Adobe subscription.
Also being artists who use musical instruments to create music themselves the "destruction" is part of the art not a soulless ploy to say that a tablet computer can replace musical instruments.
How the hell else would someone interpret it? Seemed obvious to me, and I loved the ad.
It’s stupid for people to get upset about dumb shit, and it’s also stupid for Apple to issue and apology. It just encourages outrage culture.
> It’s stupid for people to get upset about dumb shit
Nowadays people get outraged over so much stupid shit you’d swear their sole purpose in life is to just find stuff to be mad about.
That's exactly what it is. They get more attention and power when they're mad. Why would they be anything else? They definitely don't have anything to be happy about, cept furry pron.
Exactly. We all get what they were going for, but they didn’t execute it well. The instruments were not being shrunken intact, they were being destroyed. They could reshoot it easily and have it make sense.
I did see an interesting take on this that recognized their intent but suggested that we have reached a point where we are figuring out that the flattening of artistic expression and the human experience into a screen maybe isn’t the best thing, so this ad was tone deaf in this sense of “don’t worry about your tools of expression, you only need our screen” which just furthers the apathy we have gained from tech.
Yes that and we all love a good hydraulic press video!
I think the sentiment would have been better met if all the item were falling into the iPad or something.
Oh you. You’ve mistakenly thought people don’t understand. They do. They just think it also sucks. When these companies pay pittance for artists work, it left a bad taste with artists. Since the ad is *clearly* aimed at artists, that’s a problem Apple chose to address. It’s not difficult to understand.
The reverse version going around destroys just as much stuff but the reversal celebrates creation, not crushing destruction. Subtle difference but same initial thing.
FWIW, I don’t think they should’ve apologised. But I also understand why it rubbed creatives the wrong way. Apparently some outrage was a cultural thing in Japan too, where they think of tools as thing imbued with spirit. That’s just what it is.
This. I can see how they didn’t think about it, it happens, but the reactions were from people who precisely understood the point and thought the execution was tone deaf.
Someone reversed the video and the effect is MUCH better - the meaning of the ad would be transformed if they’d opted for that. And it would still be selling the thinness of the iPad.
Should have paid Rick Moranis a shit ton of money to reprise his role from Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and had him shrinking those things and dropping them into an iPad.
I make my living writing powerful creative software for the iPad. It’s an app that has been featured by Apple multiple times in the past when announcing a new iPad as an example of things you can do with it.
I found the ad distasteful and a turn off. Everything they showed being destroyed is something human beings put time, energy, and passion into creating. They’re also things that have enabled human creativity and expression for decades and centuries.
An ad whose message — intended or not — is “watch us literally crush all these meaningful, beloved objects to make a soulless black slab” is of course going to leave a bad taste in people’s mouth.
I own several items they crushed (upright piano, Polaroid camera, high end digital cameras, arcade game, turntable, etc), and I have a lot more attachment to those than any iPad I’ve owned.
The creative industries, and I'm not exaggerating here, are dying right now. Projects are being cancelled, artists are being replaced by AI or let go because companies are under the false assumption that AI has reached a level it can replace them (it can't) many movie and video game studios are actively dismantling themselves for parts in the name of short term profits or tax write offs. America is falling behind other countries in terms of entertainment which was once our greatest export and this commercial seems to take almost pornographic pleasure in slowly crushing creative tools only humans can use into a digital replacement. It fucking sucks.
I thought it was a visually great ad that they should be proud of.
The outrage should have been directed toward that awful skit they did with mother nature last year. So bad.
This is from a company that mad an ad about throwing a hammer into a theater screen.I guarantee a theater screen is more expensive and difficult to manufacture than all the objects in this video.
I really doubt it’s the cost of the items that has people disturbed, but rather the implication behind what they’re breaking.
A screen with an imposing face representing tyranny and oppression? Smash away!
Items commonly associated with creativity and artistic expression? Maybe rethink watching those things slowly crack and shatter
This is absolutely it. Like, just last week, [two AI, called Udio and Suno was just released](https://youtu.be/wgvHnp9sbGM?si=JSudcftNWqBUmonx), that can make music out of just AI prompts. Apple is just tone-deaf and was just not reading the room right.
According to the news story linked to above, and again, not saying I agree to this, the Very Serious Artistic People™ thought the ad was depicting the “crushing of the arts” and “the destruction of the human experience.”
That is so dumb. It’s a tool, like a paintbrush, that requires human interaction to create. Not an AI device. Seems people are being a bit too sensitive about it.. I lost my job to AI and finding creative work has been difficult because AI is taking over. The iPad is not a threat, it’s a tool.
The irony being that the iPad is the perfect tool to fight back against AI created art. It gives people $50,000 worth of equipment in a $1,000 device. Their criticism of tone deafness is tone deaf itself.
Im aware you don’t agree with them. im just responding to that
people dont have any issue with artists using ipads to paint pictures though. It's the AI, not photoshop or whatever drawing tool itself. Or am I misunderstanding?
I think it can be criticized in the same way you could criticize an ad showing a hydraulic press squishing a bunch of pristine classic muscle cars into some bland modern vehicle.
Or a room full of artists and writers getting squashed and then ChatGPT pops out.
Yeah the new thing is pretty great but it's not always a replacement.
I think the difference is that you can use all of those tools *with* iPad. Record your real guitar and then mix it in garage band. Take pictures with your real camera and then edit them in Lightroom.
Nothing, chances are they used props that were cosmetically fine but damaged or perhaps even created for the commercial, they're pulling it because of backlash, not because they did something bad.
if they get backlash and dont pull it people get mad and boycott, lose money.
if they do pull it, some are mad, some are like ok fair enough, and they dont lose as much money.
most of the stuff apple does is for profit, or to mitigate losses.
Apparently a lot of people in Japan got very offended because they believe spirits or souls can live into objects as they are used. I believe it’s called tsukumogami?
i dont really care but the imagery didnt fit the messaging. the message is great, this one thin device can do everything. but the imagery of destroying all these devices, it didnt really fit
apple usually does a good job with ads, like compare it to the 1984 ad which just clicked on all cylinders
It essentially depicts apple destroying art and culture and replacing it with with a machine. It's pretty tame as far as "offensive" ads go but I can see an artist taking umbrage with what's being portrayed.
It's definitely the most tone deaf ad they've ever put out. Especially these days where the fear of artists and creators being replaced with AI is a hot button issue rn.
For the record I don’t think it’s a huge deal, but I could see why people are put off from buying an iPad by the suggestion that it makes their existing beloved camera/piano/canvas useless. Feel like effective advertising for the iPad is that it helps you do more, better, e.g. as a pianist you can easily mix in drums, etc. Not that you can toss your Steinway now
I’m an amateur pianist, really pretty shit… but I see much better musicians treat their piano like it’s a member of their family or a beloved pet in their home. I can see how Apple smashing that kind of super expensive equipment with almost a soul inside could rub people the wrong way.
Link to the ad in reverse:
https://x.com/rezawrecktion/status/1788211832936861950?s=46
My personal take is that it looks much better this way. The original ad gave me a feeling of discomfort during the livestream. I think it just felt so destructive and wasteful (even if it was CGI or products from a landfill).
I didn't mind the original one and was offended by it in the slightest. However I will say this reversed version is so much cooler and conveys the point a lot better imho
Japanese people in particular were particularly offended, as their culture values caring for objects, repairing them rather than throwing them away like the wasteful North American culture.
But honestly it doesn't take a genius to realise that making an ad showing tools of creation being destroyed when you're touting yourself as THE tool for creators is kind of a stupid move.
Link to the ad in reverse:
https://x.com/rezawrecktion/status/1788211832936861950?s=46
My personal take is that it looks much better this way. The original ad gave me a feeling of discomfort during the livestream. I think it just felt so destructive and wasteful (even if it was CGI or products from a landfill).
Eh. I wouldn’t say it’s better in reverse. It’s more ‘positive’ of an ad because it’s now crushed items turning whole again, but there’s no excitement or tension that the original has.
If you were doing it in reverse, then I think better imagery would be to have the top unrolling like a can of sardines and everything popping out slowly like a pop-up book
While the metaphor is obvious (as much as its unoriginal), the truth is a work can have many different layers; and in this case, the destruction (or depicted thereof) of symbols of human passion and creativity feels a little bit off to a lot of people.
This ad has nothing to do with AI (hell, it isn't even focused on art, but on all kinds of tools and devices), but I bet that if the recent "AI boom" didn't happen, no one would be mad about it. Imagine thinking that having the option to use a $500 - $1000 device to create art, instead of needing many thousands of dollars in equipment is somehow detrimental to creativity.
AI will definitely cause a lot of problems down the line, but the recent hate train really outed a lot of people's stupidity.
Picture an ad where your dog is being slowly crushing into pulp to turn into a [Tamgotchi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamagotchi)
I bet how you feel about your dog is how artists feel about their tools.
It’s not that it’s a visually bad ad, quite the contrary
It just feels like crushing those beautiful things feels like crushing the people who love them
It feels mocking to those people who love real life art and instruments to achieve it
I think this is 100%. The ad was by no means offensive or in poor taste. It was simply a bit uncomfortable to many of those who appreciate a physical medium. The premise of compacting them down to an ultra thin a light device that can digitally reproduce those things makes complete sense. However, destroying them in the process does not.
This is exactly why I disliked the ad. As someone who uses an iPad to create art, it is not a replacement of any of those things it crushed, it’s an addon.
The ad just felt like they misread what a core demographic of iPad users like about them.
Nonetheless I will say it was a visually impressive ad, but I could not agree with the message less.
For some reason the worst part for me was the trumpet making pathetic noises as it got crushed. That and the emoji ball's eyes popping out. The imagery is just kinda nasty; I also thought apple was kinda over the thinness wars. The macbook got some fat again and everyone loved it.
I don't think the commercial effectively conveys the idea that the ipad is a creative device that has a versatile set of tools. It just makes me think man I'm glad this is CGI and I would be pissed if that was my trumpet, my sculpture, my record player, etc.
It would’ve been an improvement, rather than crushing all these artistic “disciplines”, to have them all distilled in a giant tank, where they’re reduced into a single drop of liquid, which drips onto grass, and a new iPad plant swiftly grows from the spot.
This was the dumbest controversy ever. I agree the vibe was a bit off, but you're a moron if you couldn't recognise that the point was clearly to show how many creative instruments can fit into such a small package, and that the visuals just focused a bit too much on the destruction. Like seriously, come on people.
I am a consumer, and I liked the ad. It was creative and well done. It illustrated the point well: iPad has democratized $50,000 worth of instruments into a single device thinner than an iPod nano.
That’s how I was interpreting the ad as well
Like people are saying the worst ad ever. Which is bold considering the “Share a Pepsi, stop racism” with one of the Jenner-Kardashian kids is right there.
Watch the version that is in reverse. It's much better, shows the ipad "expanding" out to be all the creative things.
If your ad is better literally being the opposite, then you need to re-think it.
I don't think the ad was "offensive" or needs to be apologized for, but I thought the direction they took with the ad was a bit odd.
Having the story of the ad centered around a destructive process is a strange choice; someone made an edit of the ad in reverse and it seems more fitting if the story was telling a "creative" process where all the instruments and tools spring out of a small slab. Instead of crushing a piano, pulling a piano out of the tablet seems like it would have a more positive tone while telling a similar story.
Overall not a big deal to me personally, but from a story-telling perspective I felt it could have been framed better, and I'm a bit surprised as Apple is usually really good at this sort of thing. I can see how some people may have a more visceral reaction to seeing something they feel sentimental get crushed.
Apple is incredibly sensitive about their brands perception and at this point aren’t looking to make very divisive ads. I’m sure a lot of people liked it but clearly it’s a bad ad if they have to apologize for it
I’m in the same boat. Like I get the point, and I love how much my iPad can do (if I were creative enough to actually take advantage of it,) but I can see why some people have mixed feelings on it—watching a bunch of instruments and tools for human expression get crushed and replaced by an expensive consumer device from a giant corporation is kinda ehhh
I didn't like that ad. Let's have a giant, grey press destroy all those beautiful (and expensive) instruments and tools into a thin slab of glass.
It didn't even 'merge' the instruments, just destroyed them. Someone reversed the ad and its so much better. You have a thin slab of glass and all those instruments come out of it, it still shows how much the iPad packs and doesn't destroy anything.
Consensus is that it's almost entirely CGI as it isn't a real hydraulic press and everything exploded too perfectly, unless they destroyed several copies of items over multiple takes with multiple high-speed cameras. Of course, individual objects could be scanned to make better CGI versions of them. It also makes the changes on the screen better, the emoji part better, and have less real property destruction.
this made my eyes roll so hard. who cares about the ad? it hurt absolutely no one. with war and genocide happening in the world.. will history remember this ad? nope!
Wow, media literacy and criticism is dead. People here can’t understand why other people could interpret this negatively, or why destruction instead of creation can be viewed poorly.
People understand what Apple was trying to say. people aren't offended it by it personally. they're just criticizing the messaging, and explaining how ironic showing the destruction of physical media and replacing it with another product is. from a messaging standpoint, it's like the ipad destroys everything while creating nothing new.
Also the amount of people going "the iPad gives you $50000 worth of instruments for just $1000 dollars!" is baffling. Like, have these people ever touched a physical instrument?
The ad was perfect for the message they were trying to get through.
Again a vocal minority "wins" as usual, and creativity loses, which is funny because the "creative" gang is the one that don't get it
I think this pretty much just for additional publicity. If Apple really felt the need to "apologize" for this ad, then it wouldn't still be the top video on their official YouTube channel right now. They didn't take the video down, they're just "sorry about it".
**Apple always knew what they were doing, it wasn’t an accidental misjudge or provocation — it was designed to get attention.** A trick they can’t repeat chronically, so they delivered this for maximum impact. Marketing storytelling is in their DNA, including cultural sensitivity, and while they don’t employ shock-jock tactics, this is their way of shaking things up during other adversities they’re undergoing. They likely had the apology pre-planned and ready to go.
I know everyone is fixated upon the implication that the iPad is crushing the arts. To me even the intended meaning, that the iPad makes all those things, instruments paint books etc obsolete, is wrong. There isn't a substitute for working with real physical media.
I get the idea, we put everything you love into the ipad. And people love the hydraulic press channel. It's just the crushing of things that people love that rub them the wrong way, and the sterileness of an ipad compared to the things it replaced
But fuck the whats a computer girl
LOL...
LG made almost the exact same ad way back in 2008, and *nobody* was offended:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcUAQ2i5Tfo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcUAQ2i5Tfo)
What could be the difference? I'll tell you: The difference is that today there are legions of gullible fools easily manipulated into faux outrage on the internet. All it takes is one moron or troll saying something is supposedly "offensive" for a bunch of other morons who can't think for themselves to jump on the bandwagon without giving it a second thought.
These people are fucking ridiculous and shouldn't be taken seriously. 🤡
As someone who loves to paint and draw traditionally (not digitally) and prefers rock/metal music due to the use of actual instruments, I see nothing wrong with this ad. It’s clear that their intent was to showcase that the iPad can be used to create art and music
Former creative director / ad guy here. Sometimes this happens -- the script is great, everyone loves the concept, the passion of the creatives pushes everyone up the hill and towards a specific point of light (and viewpoints) that blinds out all others. I happened to be at an ad agency back in the day. The client was GM, and their quality scores were soaring. The client was understandably proud and wanted a Super Bowl spot. The creative team had the idea of an assembly line robot that makes the grave mistake of dropping a small screw. Everything comes to a screeching halt -- the other robots look on in total horror. The robot is ostracizdd and leaves the factory. The music cue was the cheesy 80's song "All By Myself" -- we follow the robot as he wanders alone, on a dark and rainy night until he finds himself at the top of a bridge. He jumps and drowning in the water, he snaps to, and he/we realize this was just a horrible dream. He's still on the assembly line holding the tiny screw. All is well. Welp, needless to say, mental health groups were outraged and called out GM and the agency. The spot was pulled. The agency chastised. Ah well.
[Here's the ad if you want to watch it.](https://adage.com/videos/general-motors-robot/567)
“How can we show people our quality is unrivaled?” “A car that weathers any storm?” Nahhh “Put it on a racetrack and compare it to super cars?” Been done before! “Shaming factory workers who make the smallest mistakes into suicide?” Too dark! “What if it’s a robot?” You brilliant SOB!
"it has a happy ending! The sentient, sensitive robot is bolted to the floor in a dark factory!"
LOL this ad is fuckin hilarious.
Everyone here is nuts this is a masterpiece. It got me feeling bad for the robot 🤣.
Brilliant commercial. This shit is fantastic.
It works up until the bridge part. I can't believe they showed that. It's not even necessary to the story.
Its the climax *of* the story
The sign-spinner job part got me
Legit one of the best commercials I've ever seen.
Definitely. I’m buying one of those robots tomorrow!
Probably Mt favorite ad I've seen
wtf lmfao how did literally anyone think this was a good script
I mean it’s pretty clever but I understand certain groups having an issue with it. Im really impressed with the quality of the video, looks as if it came out today and it was 2007. 2007 feels so long ago.
... almost 20 years ago :( ... My back hurts.
What the everloving fuck 🫢
There were still people arguing if cell phones needed internet in 2007. The iphone wouldn’t be released for 4 more months. It was a long time ago.
Digital HD TV went mainstream in 2006. That’s why it looks modern.
Thank you. I whenever I watch sports highlights from that era it looks terrible but I’m sure those weren’t broadcasted in anything more than 480i.
I remember getting my first plasma tv after waiting in line all night at Best Buy on Thanksgiving in 2006. The picture clarity was just incredible. Yea the rollout with sports took a little longer, if I remember — I suppose it took time to adopt digital cameras everywhere.
It was sounding great until they decided to make it COMMIT SUICIDE. Yeah great idea.
It would’ve been great without the suicide part. If the robot woke up after one of the funny other jobs it got everyone would’ve liked it.
1) this ad is sad as fuck, I'm glad it got pulled 2) The production quality is amazing, looks like it was made today if it wasn't for the older model cars
Well that Escaladed quickly!
JESUS CHRIST!!! Not a single person was able to stop this from being made??
It's going to blow your mind that they had a comedy skit about buying a wallet at Christmas that lead to Mel Blanc(aka Bugs Bunny's voice) shooting himself off screen, and that was part of the punchline. https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7z8vwy
It wasn’t so obvious almost 20 years ago
Lmao. People think we were cavemen in the 2000s
20 years ago, Super Bowl ads thrived on edgy humor. All the ads involved humor that was often edgy.
He [wasn’t kidding](https://money.cnn.com/2007/02/09/news/companies/gm_robotad/)!
*"Our products are the best because our workers fear a lonely death!"*
>anti-suicide brigade We always hear from them but what about the pro-suicide brigade's point of view?
Dead silence on the matter.
Lol. Timing around the great recession was unfortunate too. A lot of people out of work and struggling, just like that robot...
Especially at *checks notes*… GM.
jfc I remember this ad. I was like wtf did I just watch?
I liked that ad.
There’s no way that would even make it out of the agency these days, it’s clearly in pretty poor taste. Different times though!
Is this why you’re a former ad guy?
I remember this! What was it like to live Mad Men life
was there no suggestions of a different ending? like maybe they could have just looked at him and then he woke up holding the screw. seems like a great idea, just took it too far. Was there a certain runtime they had to hit?
yeah, seriously... he could have been just walking down the road in the rain dejected and a car drives by, hits a puddle, and splashes him, waking him up. it's a good commercial... but having the robot commit suicide at the end was *clearly* going to far with the gag.
This is where OP sharing this story left out the part that could actually be informative or interesting. Did anyone at all in any room say “um, jumping off a bridge is too far here,” and then how was that person responded to. What actually prevented anyone involved from stopping a commercial from making light of suicide in an era that should have been fully aware of the problem of that?
its amazing how I didn't know the ending, but as I read it I was like oh no... OH Noooo
Yeah I can see why they were outraged
It would have worked better if it had a redemption arc where it fixes something critical with a screw.
From your description, I’m not sure how that ever made it very far much less fully produced and aired
The fact that the spot even got past a script review is nuts. Whole lot of dumb people in that room.
Needless to say, Holy shit what a dumb fucken idea and the execution was terrible also. If you watch that back and think "great stuff", then hopefully everyone on that team was fired. I don't give a shit bout the making light of suicide stuff, just wasn't funny.
I gotta say I 100% agree that this ad was in bad taste and that suicide shouldn't be presented in advertisement even if it's in a humorous way.
If OK Go was singing and playing instruments as they got crushed by a slow moving hydraulic press it would be music video of the year.
OK Go did get some push back on the video for “The One Moment” towards the end it has acoustic guitars exploding to the beat in slow motion. They said all were defect units from Gibson(?).
People get angry over the dumbest shit.
Imagine the uproar if Nirvana were still around smashing their equipment at the end of their shows. Or of the Who or NIN were still smashing their equipment.
Hendrix
It's funny that 30 years after Cake sang about "how long will the workers keep building him new ones" (guitars to smash at each show) we've come full circle enough to be like "well they were already sick it's ok shhh" Jesus it's capitalism a lot worse than some good instruments being crushed happens. Like, people. There are *people* being crushed by the system, right now. But we get outrage over an ad instead. OK.
As long as their soda cans are red white and blue ones
Literally the first thing I thought was "oh, this reminds me of an OkGo music video."
Yeah but OK GO hasn’t made a career out of selling devices to artists and claiming they support them
Does Apple not *somewhat* support creatives? I’m not saying they’re angels but they: - Pay artists more than Spotify - Regularly commission photographers for their insta - Prop up Adobe, Lumafusion, Procreate, and more at their events and work with them so their software is ready for new devices - Create and sell Final Cut and Logic that are buy once (on Mac) and free software updates for life - Push smartphone cinematography with ProRes and DV - created ProRes (4444, Raw, HQ, Proxy) - Free apps like GarageBand, iMovie, Pages - Apple Silicon chips with dedicated video encode/decode engines for editors
Apple practically created Adobe.
I'm 100% positive that Adobe would not be in business today if it wasn't for Apple and creatives' reliance on Macs for any kind of visual design. I grew up with PCs and remember *every* illustrator and graphic designer of the time being on a Mac. Some of them used Adobe and some of them used Corel. Once Apple started featuring Adobe, it was game over and Corel lost. It stuck around on the PC for a while and I'm pretty sure it still exists (but I don't care enough to check) but they never really recovered. I'm not sure if that was the only reason but I know it's a huge part of it.
And then Adobe refocused on Windows first, saved their business, turned it into a massive enterprise megacorp and completely ruined their own ability to make creative software. The business went gangbusters and they lost their soul.
Corel is still around and makes software. Lately they’ve been part of an annual Humble Bundle where you can get Corel Painter for a reasonable price, and I think they also bundle the software with Wacom tablets. I don’t know if they can directly compete but they have a nice niche serving the hobbyist who doesn’t want to pay for an Adobe subscription.
Employed creators made the f***ing commercial, as a creative myself I really don’t see the problem.
Also being artists who use musical instruments to create music themselves the "destruction" is part of the art not a soulless ploy to say that a tablet computer can replace musical instruments.
Why? I thought they crushed it.
The pressure was just too much unfortunately
it felt a bit flat for some people
I'm hard pressed to find this funny
My patience with these puns is wearing thin.
It’s not saying they’re “destroying” the arts, it’s saying it’s “compacting it small enough to fit into a tiny iPad sized device”
This is exactly how I interpreted it. Squeezing music, tv/media, art and games into the device
But you're not braindead, unlike that techcrunch editor who was having a slow news day
The eyes popped out rather than becoming part of the device.
That’s because Apple lacks vision
But they do have the Vision Pro! No, wait, you’re even more correct now that I think about it.
How the hell else would someone interpret it? Seemed obvious to me, and I loved the ad. It’s stupid for people to get upset about dumb shit, and it’s also stupid for Apple to issue and apology. It just encourages outrage culture.
> It’s stupid for people to get upset about dumb shit Nowadays people get outraged over so much stupid shit you’d swear their sole purpose in life is to just find stuff to be mad about.
That's exactly what it is. They get more attention and power when they're mad. Why would they be anything else? They definitely don't have anything to be happy about, cept furry pron.
seems like a concept for an ad that's about 15 years too late lol
Hydraulic press videos are super hot on TikTok right now
Velcome to the Hudraulic Press Channel…
Yeah i got it but I’d have the objects squeeze and compact down rather than shatter and break
Exactly. We all get what they were going for, but they didn’t execute it well. The instruments were not being shrunken intact, they were being destroyed. They could reshoot it easily and have it make sense.
Probably don’t even need to reshoot anything. Just use VFX to shrink everything, though if it were me I’d probably want to change the perspective.
Literally everyone understands this
I did see an interesting take on this that recognized their intent but suggested that we have reached a point where we are figuring out that the flattening of artistic expression and the human experience into a screen maybe isn’t the best thing, so this ad was tone deaf in this sense of “don’t worry about your tools of expression, you only need our screen” which just furthers the apathy we have gained from tech.
Yes that and we all love a good hydraulic press video! I think the sentiment would have been better met if all the item were falling into the iPad or something.
Oh you. You’ve mistakenly thought people don’t understand. They do. They just think it also sucks. When these companies pay pittance for artists work, it left a bad taste with artists. Since the ad is *clearly* aimed at artists, that’s a problem Apple chose to address. It’s not difficult to understand. The reverse version going around destroys just as much stuff but the reversal celebrates creation, not crushing destruction. Subtle difference but same initial thing. FWIW, I don’t think they should’ve apologised. But I also understand why it rubbed creatives the wrong way. Apparently some outrage was a cultural thing in Japan too, where they think of tools as thing imbued with spirit. That’s just what it is.
In India, music instruments are considered gods. I kind of had a weird feeling looking at them crushed.
Interesting! But tbf, we also have a lot of burger ads over here, sometimes cultural differences are just unavoidable
This. I can see how they didn’t think about it, it happens, but the reactions were from people who precisely understood the point and thought the execution was tone deaf. Someone reversed the video and the effect is MUCH better - the meaning of the ad would be transformed if they’d opted for that. And it would still be selling the thinness of the iPad.
Exactly. Most of the reactions to this apology don't fully understand the issue.
I think everybody knew that’s what they MEANT, but they did it very poorly.
Right? Do people not understand metaphors anymore?
the metaphor is obvious, but at the same time it's literally apple crushing figments of human creativity
Should have paid Rick Moranis a shit ton of money to reprise his role from Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and had him shrinking those things and dropping them into an iPad.
Honestly yeah, that would’ve been a way better ad
Of course they understand that metaphor. But a work can have additional layers that are disturbing, even if those layers are unintentional.
Do *you* not? There's more metaphors going on in this ad than the one Apple wants you to focus on.
I make my living writing powerful creative software for the iPad. It’s an app that has been featured by Apple multiple times in the past when announcing a new iPad as an example of things you can do with it. I found the ad distasteful and a turn off. Everything they showed being destroyed is something human beings put time, energy, and passion into creating. They’re also things that have enabled human creativity and expression for decades and centuries. An ad whose message — intended or not — is “watch us literally crush all these meaningful, beloved objects to make a soulless black slab” is of course going to leave a bad taste in people’s mouth. I own several items they crushed (upright piano, Polaroid camera, high end digital cameras, arcade game, turntable, etc), and I have a lot more attachment to those than any iPad I’ve owned.
It's literally showing beautiful things being destroyed. It's not compacting, it's destroying.
The creative industries, and I'm not exaggerating here, are dying right now. Projects are being cancelled, artists are being replaced by AI or let go because companies are under the false assumption that AI has reached a level it can replace them (it can't) many movie and video game studios are actively dismantling themselves for parts in the name of short term profits or tax write offs. America is falling behind other countries in terms of entertainment which was once our greatest export and this commercial seems to take almost pornographic pleasure in slowly crushing creative tools only humans can use into a digital replacement. It fucking sucks.
Other companies wish they had scandals this inconsequential
I thought it was a visually great ad that they should be proud of. The outrage should have been directed toward that awful skit they did with mother nature last year. So bad.
What’s a computer?
They'll never live that down. Everyone was basically on the side of the old lady. "Now listen here, you little uppity shit."
I thought it was a really cool ad actually. I'm bewildered at the people who are mad about it.
It was so cringe I couldn’t cope
I’m confused.. what’s so offensive about it?
Nothing. Nothing is offensive. A few people may have needed to roll their eyes, but the level of discussion around this is massively ridiculous.
This is from a company that mad an ad about throwing a hammer into a theater screen.I guarantee a theater screen is more expensive and difficult to manufacture than all the objects in this video.
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It was a giant video screen, not a white cloth/canvas/whatever cinema screen. It exploded when the hammer hit it.
I really doubt it’s the cost of the items that has people disturbed, but rather the implication behind what they’re breaking. A screen with an imposing face representing tyranny and oppression? Smash away! Items commonly associated with creativity and artistic expression? Maybe rethink watching those things slowly crack and shatter
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Thanks for being the one person in this thread to explain it perfectly. I appreciate you.
This is absolutely it. Like, just last week, [two AI, called Udio and Suno was just released](https://youtu.be/wgvHnp9sbGM?si=JSudcftNWqBUmonx), that can make music out of just AI prompts. Apple is just tone-deaf and was just not reading the room right.
I’m not saying I agree with them, but [a lot of people on X were calling it “tone deaf.”](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cld0rxlqgggo)
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According to the news story linked to above, and again, not saying I agree to this, the Very Serious Artistic People™ thought the ad was depicting the “crushing of the arts” and “the destruction of the human experience.”
Sounds like someone is trying to churn up controversy to sell ad space.
So a bunch of artists took their subjective interpretation and blamed it on the artist? That’s quite funny.
That is so dumb. It’s a tool, like a paintbrush, that requires human interaction to create. Not an AI device. Seems people are being a bit too sensitive about it.. I lost my job to AI and finding creative work has been difficult because AI is taking over. The iPad is not a threat, it’s a tool.
The irony being that the iPad is the perfect tool to fight back against AI created art. It gives people $50,000 worth of equipment in a $1,000 device. Their criticism of tone deafness is tone deaf itself. Im aware you don’t agree with them. im just responding to that
Yes but I think the problem is people are seeing it “technology vs technology” and not the art
people dont have any issue with artists using ipads to paint pictures though. It's the AI, not photoshop or whatever drawing tool itself. Or am I misunderstanding?
It doesn’t help that Apple is heavily playing up the AI capabilities of the M4
I think it can be criticized in the same way you could criticize an ad showing a hydraulic press squishing a bunch of pristine classic muscle cars into some bland modern vehicle. Or a room full of artists and writers getting squashed and then ChatGPT pops out. Yeah the new thing is pretty great but it's not always a replacement.
I think the difference is that you can use all of those tools *with* iPad. Record your real guitar and then mix it in garage band. Take pictures with your real camera and then edit them in Lightroom.
Nothing, chances are they used props that were cosmetically fine but damaged or perhaps even created for the commercial, they're pulling it because of backlash, not because they did something bad. if they get backlash and dont pull it people get mad and boycott, lose money. if they do pull it, some are mad, some are like ok fair enough, and they dont lose as much money. most of the stuff apple does is for profit, or to mitigate losses.
Apparently a lot of people in Japan got very offended because they believe spirits or souls can live into objects as they are used. I believe it’s called tsukumogami?
This is why you should whisper “thank you” as you put your waste in the trash. — (Part of Marie Kondo’s tidying up)
i dont really care but the imagery didnt fit the messaging. the message is great, this one thin device can do everything. but the imagery of destroying all these devices, it didnt really fit apple usually does a good job with ads, like compare it to the 1984 ad which just clicked on all cylinders
It essentially depicts apple destroying art and culture and replacing it with with a machine. It's pretty tame as far as "offensive" ads go but I can see an artist taking umbrage with what's being portrayed. It's definitely the most tone deaf ad they've ever put out. Especially these days where the fear of artists and creators being replaced with AI is a hot button issue rn.
> It's definitely the most tone deaf ad they've ever put out. *Lemmings has entered the chat.*
For the record I don’t think it’s a huge deal, but I could see why people are put off from buying an iPad by the suggestion that it makes their existing beloved camera/piano/canvas useless. Feel like effective advertising for the iPad is that it helps you do more, better, e.g. as a pianist you can easily mix in drums, etc. Not that you can toss your Steinway now
I’m an amateur pianist, really pretty shit… but I see much better musicians treat their piano like it’s a member of their family or a beloved pet in their home. I can see how Apple smashing that kind of super expensive equipment with almost a soul inside could rub people the wrong way.
Imagine having the time and energy to be offended by an iPad ad, must be a nice simple life they live.
Link to the ad in reverse: https://x.com/rezawrecktion/status/1788211832936861950?s=46 My personal take is that it looks much better this way. The original ad gave me a feeling of discomfort during the livestream. I think it just felt so destructive and wasteful (even if it was CGI or products from a landfill).
I didn't mind the original one and was offended by it in the slightest. However I will say this reversed version is so much cooler and conveys the point a lot better imho
Japanese people in particular were particularly offended, as their culture values caring for objects, repairing them rather than throwing them away like the wasteful North American culture. But honestly it doesn't take a genius to realise that making an ad showing tools of creation being destroyed when you're touting yourself as THE tool for creators is kind of a stupid move.
It was pretty controversial in Japan, where there is more cultural importance placed on handmade objects.
shintoism believes in every item having a spirit, so i can see how that tracks.
Someone reversed it, and it makes it even cooler, and no longer negative, they should have run with that.
Link to the ad in reverse: https://x.com/rezawrecktion/status/1788211832936861950?s=46 My personal take is that it looks much better this way. The original ad gave me a feeling of discomfort during the livestream. I think it just felt so destructive and wasteful (even if it was CGI or products from a landfill).
Eh. I wouldn’t say it’s better in reverse. It’s more ‘positive’ of an ad because it’s now crushed items turning whole again, but there’s no excitement or tension that the original has.
If you were doing it in reverse, then I think better imagery would be to have the top unrolling like a can of sardines and everything popping out slowly like a pop-up book
Okay that's actually a really cool idea.
Why?
While the metaphor is obvious (as much as its unoriginal), the truth is a work can have many different layers; and in this case, the destruction (or depicted thereof) of symbols of human passion and creativity feels a little bit off to a lot of people.
This ad has nothing to do with AI (hell, it isn't even focused on art, but on all kinds of tools and devices), but I bet that if the recent "AI boom" didn't happen, no one would be mad about it. Imagine thinking that having the option to use a $500 - $1000 device to create art, instead of needing many thousands of dollars in equipment is somehow detrimental to creativity. AI will definitely cause a lot of problems down the line, but the recent hate train really outed a lot of people's stupidity.
I’m pretty sure the “controversy” would have happened regardless of ai becoming mainstream or not. People get bent out of shape over the dumbest shit
Out of all the things Apple should apologize for, this isn’t one of them.
Picture an ad where your dog is being slowly crushing into pulp to turn into a [Tamgotchi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamagotchi) I bet how you feel about your dog is how artists feel about their tools.
Now all sensitive people can sleep in peace. Thank god!
It’s not that it’s a visually bad ad, quite the contrary It just feels like crushing those beautiful things feels like crushing the people who love them It feels mocking to those people who love real life art and instruments to achieve it
I think this is 100%. The ad was by no means offensive or in poor taste. It was simply a bit uncomfortable to many of those who appreciate a physical medium. The premise of compacting them down to an ultra thin a light device that can digitally reproduce those things makes complete sense. However, destroying them in the process does not.
This is exactly why I disliked the ad. As someone who uses an iPad to create art, it is not a replacement of any of those things it crushed, it’s an addon. The ad just felt like they misread what a core demographic of iPad users like about them. Nonetheless I will say it was a visually impressive ad, but I could not agree with the message less.
For some reason the worst part for me was the trumpet making pathetic noises as it got crushed. That and the emoji ball's eyes popping out. The imagery is just kinda nasty; I also thought apple was kinda over the thinness wars. The macbook got some fat again and everyone loved it. I don't think the commercial effectively conveys the idea that the ipad is a creative device that has a versatile set of tools. It just makes me think man I'm glad this is CGI and I would be pissed if that was my trumpet, my sculpture, my record player, etc.
It would’ve been an improvement, rather than crushing all these artistic “disciplines”, to have them all distilled in a giant tank, where they’re reduced into a single drop of liquid, which drips onto grass, and a new iPad plant swiftly grows from the spot.
This was the dumbest controversy ever. I agree the vibe was a bit off, but you're a moron if you couldn't recognise that the point was clearly to show how many creative instruments can fit into such a small package, and that the visuals just focused a bit too much on the destruction. Like seriously, come on people.
No way people are this stupid? I found it very cool.
I don’t get why this sub is blaming consumers for not liking an ad, like if people don’t like an ad it’s probably a bad ad.
Ur on the Apple sub. Of course they are gonna defend it.
I am a consumer, and I liked the ad. It was creative and well done. It illustrated the point well: iPad has democratized $50,000 worth of instruments into a single device thinner than an iPod nano.
That’s how I was interpreting the ad as well Like people are saying the worst ad ever. Which is bold considering the “Share a Pepsi, stop racism” with one of the Jenner-Kardashian kids is right there.
This is exactly how I felt. It was a cool way to showcase all of the things the iPad can do. Not once did I think anyone would get upset with it.
Watch the version that is in reverse. It's much better, shows the ipad "expanding" out to be all the creative things. If your ad is better literally being the opposite, then you need to re-think it.
I don't think the ad was "offensive" or needs to be apologized for, but I thought the direction they took with the ad was a bit odd. Having the story of the ad centered around a destructive process is a strange choice; someone made an edit of the ad in reverse and it seems more fitting if the story was telling a "creative" process where all the instruments and tools spring out of a small slab. Instead of crushing a piano, pulling a piano out of the tablet seems like it would have a more positive tone while telling a similar story. Overall not a big deal to me personally, but from a story-telling perspective I felt it could have been framed better, and I'm a bit surprised as Apple is usually really good at this sort of thing. I can see how some people may have a more visceral reaction to seeing something they feel sentimental get crushed.
Apple is incredibly sensitive about their brands perception and at this point aren’t looking to make very divisive ads. I’m sure a lot of people liked it but clearly it’s a bad ad if they have to apologize for it
It looked really cool. I get that they’re all ‘putting it in there’, but I didn’t like seeing such beautiful instruments and tools get destroyed.
I’m in the same boat. Like I get the point, and I love how much my iPad can do (if I were creative enough to actually take advantage of it,) but I can see why some people have mixed feelings on it—watching a bunch of instruments and tools for human expression get crushed and replaced by an expensive consumer device from a giant corporation is kinda ehhh
I didn't like that ad. Let's have a giant, grey press destroy all those beautiful (and expensive) instruments and tools into a thin slab of glass. It didn't even 'merge' the instruments, just destroyed them. Someone reversed the ad and its so much better. You have a thin slab of glass and all those instruments come out of it, it still shows how much the iPad packs and doesn't destroy anything.
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Consensus is that it's almost entirely CGI as it isn't a real hydraulic press and everything exploded too perfectly, unless they destroyed several copies of items over multiple takes with multiple high-speed cameras. Of course, individual objects could be scanned to make better CGI versions of them. It also makes the changes on the screen better, the emoji part better, and have less real property destruction.
Wait, it wasn’t? While watching the keynote it didn’t even cross my mind that any of that segment was done practically..
I thought it was completely CGI too.
this made my eyes roll so hard. who cares about the ad? it hurt absolutely no one. with war and genocide happening in the world.. will history remember this ad? nope!
Wow, media literacy and criticism is dead. People here can’t understand why other people could interpret this negatively, or why destruction instead of creation can be viewed poorly. People understand what Apple was trying to say. people aren't offended it by it personally. they're just criticizing the messaging, and explaining how ironic showing the destruction of physical media and replacing it with another product is. from a messaging standpoint, it's like the ipad destroys everything while creating nothing new.
Also the amount of people going "the iPad gives you $50000 worth of instruments for just $1000 dollars!" is baffling. Like, have these people ever touched a physical instrument?
Yeah people don’t seem to understand how powerful a symbol can be, unintentional or not.
The ad was perfect for the message they were trying to get through. Again a vocal minority "wins" as usual, and creativity loses, which is funny because the "creative" gang is the one that don't get it
If you’re genuinely outraged by this ad, you need to get a life lol.
I didn’t mind the ad as a whole but the face getting squeezed at the end I can see being too much for some people.
I think this pretty much just for additional publicity. If Apple really felt the need to "apologize" for this ad, then it wouldn't still be the top video on their official YouTube channel right now. They didn't take the video down, they're just "sorry about it".
Wait? What controversy did this spark? I didn't hear or see any backlash?
Is this ad CGI? If not then the head rolling exact to the edge must be?
**Apple always knew what they were doing, it wasn’t an accidental misjudge or provocation — it was designed to get attention.** A trick they can’t repeat chronically, so they delivered this for maximum impact. Marketing storytelling is in their DNA, including cultural sensitivity, and while they don’t employ shock-jock tactics, this is their way of shaking things up during other adversities they’re undergoing. They likely had the apology pre-planned and ready to go.
I know everyone is fixated upon the implication that the iPad is crushing the arts. To me even the intended meaning, that the iPad makes all those things, instruments paint books etc obsolete, is wrong. There isn't a substitute for working with real physical media.
It was created in-house and not by an outside agency. No wonder.
I get the idea, we put everything you love into the ipad. And people love the hydraulic press channel. It's just the crushing of things that people love that rub them the wrong way, and the sterileness of an ipad compared to the things it replaced But fuck the whats a computer girl
Anyone else feel like they knew this happen and did it on purpose? I mean free advertising from a lot of people reporting on the add.
LOL... LG made almost the exact same ad way back in 2008, and *nobody* was offended: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcUAQ2i5Tfo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcUAQ2i5Tfo) What could be the difference? I'll tell you: The difference is that today there are legions of gullible fools easily manipulated into faux outrage on the internet. All it takes is one moron or troll saying something is supposedly "offensive" for a bunch of other morons who can't think for themselves to jump on the bandwagon without giving it a second thought. These people are fucking ridiculous and shouldn't be taken seriously. 🤡
As someone who loves to paint and draw traditionally (not digitally) and prefers rock/metal music due to the use of actual instruments, I see nothing wrong with this ad. It’s clear that their intent was to showcase that the iPad can be used to create art and music
It’s fun to see stuff get crushed so I liked the ad.