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Apple apologizes for iPad 'Crush' ad that 'missed the mark'

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Re: Apple apologizes for iPad 'Crush' ad that 'missed the mark'

#241

Post by diputsmonro »

Grazester wrote: post #47
hestefisk wrote: post #23

I’m struggling a bit to see why this ad is controversial.

It's the times we live in. People have just become overly sensitive it seems. Apple needs to apologize or risk a cancel culture backlash.

Would you prefer a world wherein people aren't allowed to speak their mind instead?

Stop being so sensitive about people "being sensitive" and engage in the discussion instead of dismissing it.

All this complaining about "cancel culture" is just complaining that other people are using their freedom of speech in a way that you don't like. This is what freedom is speech means - disagreement. Stop whining about people disagreeing with you. Either address the arguments they're making to further the conversation, or deal with it.

Re: Apple apologizes for iPad 'Crush' ad that 'missed the mark'

#242

Post by willis936 »

franciscop wrote: post #204
Apocryphon wrote: post #27

Aside from the destruction of low-tech artistic tools triggering non-tech people aspect, tonally the ad was also overly edgy, which is off-brand for Apple. As noted elsewhere, it felt like a video game commercial from the '90s: gratuitous in its attention-seeking. https://twitter.com/cuniiform/status/1788013085392859171 And it's actually already been done before, by Nintendo: https://twitter.com/rsnous/status/1788047…

Tonally isn't it kind of like the 1984 Apple commercial?

1984 was about breaking free from the bondage of an Orwellian society. Crush is a celebration of creating that bondage.

Re: Apple apologizes for iPad 'Crush' ad that 'missed the mark'

#243

Post by 7thpower »

endisneigh wrote: post #239

Man, people get offended about everything these days.

Yes. I am questioning whether I have some emotional deficiency because I just don’t get why people are reading so far into it and, to me, it perfectly encapsulates how people are constantly looking for something to be offended by.

I thought the ad was bad, but for different reasons. The ads and presentation have become so over produced that it feels like some giant inside joke for a company that is out of touch. I think their culture has mostly become (or maybe always was) sniffing each others farts and telling them how great that last one was.

So I suppose it is somewhat ironic in the sense that I imagine their own leadership are the most likely to be offended by the symbolism in the first place.

Anyway I can’t wait for the M4 MacBooks. Take my money, Tim.

Re: Apple apologizes for iPad 'Crush' ad that 'missed the mark'

#244

Post by adrian_b »

Apocryphon wrote: post #58
edkennedy wrote: post #28

Missing from this extremely short and underreported article is how badly this played out in Japanese market. The culture they have states that musical instruments, creative tools have some energy and imbued sense of spirit to them. So destroying these elements of culture is really really blunt and gauche to them. The majority of the push back came from Japanese people, and then artists empathizing with their sentimen…

Really interesting to consider that this might be one of the few incidents that Shintoists, or at least "cultural Shintoists," have gotten offended at a western production. Makes me wonder if this is why Apple went out of their way to apologize for the ad. I think if this ad just had non-culturally-specific backlash, they would've simply moved on. But because this impacted a specific market's sensibilities, maybe the…

I have seen recently a documentary about Japanese food, and an interesting fact was that the chefs at some big Japanese restaurant had a special decorated grave, in some nice yard, in which they deposited their old kitchen knives, when those were so worn out that they could no longer be used.

They felt that it would be disrespectful to just dump somewhere the main tools of their work, after they had used those every day for decades.

Re: Apple apologizes for iPad 'Crush' ad that 'missed the mark'

#245

Post by benrutter »

When I watch the trailer, it feels very cringe.

I can absolutely see what they're going for- something like "you're iPad contains the power of all these cultural tools", but visually that connection isn't there. It just looks like "Hooray! Culture has been destroyed, now there is only iPad!"

Re: Apple apologizes for iPad 'Crush' ad that 'missed the mark'

#246

Post by gizmo »

I don't understand the outrage. It's cgi, and very obvious cgi at that. The items bend and explode in an exaggerated cartoon fashion.

It's whimsical. No instruments have been destroyed. No actual paint has been spilled. We don't get mad at destruction in a pixar movie. We cheer when rock stars smash their actual guitars after a live performance. We don't live in a culture that abhors destruction.

Do people just not recognize CGI? Is that's what's happening here?

Re: Apple apologizes for iPad 'Crush' ad that 'missed the mark'

#247

Post by jprete »

Hamuko wrote: post #219
tecleandor wrote: post #216

They missed the opportunity of, instead of destroying everything, "compressing" it all in an iPad to show "all the things that you can fit inside that tiny device" or something like that. The destruction seemed pointless.

What? They are quite literally compressing those things in the video. And if you apply compressive force to a bunch of objects using a massive press, the objects would obviously get destroyed.

The metaphor is compression, the visual is crushing. An actual destructive action doesn't work as a metaphor for an imagined conserving action, the connotations of each are almost entirely at odds with each other. The best reason to do it is probably to make the audience deeply uncomfortable, which works if you're making a movie but is maybe not so good for ads.

Re: Apple apologizes for iPad 'Crush' ad that 'missed the mark'

#248

Post by white-moss »

compressedgas wrote: post #99
ykonstant wrote: post #91

Related concept: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mono_no_aware

Not really. There is another Japanese term that I once read an article about that I don't recall and haven't been able to find again which meant: > the anger one feels when sacred objects are desecrated.

"boutoku" (冒涜) ?

Re: Apple apologizes for iPad 'Crush' ad that 'missed the mark'

#249

Post by willis936 »

globular-toast wrote: post #112
noitpmeder wrote: post #8

It's a bit insane to me that Apple felt the need to "apologize"... so they made a crappy AD that didn't appeal to some audiences... is this really grounds for retractions/apologies these days?

Any publicity is good publicity. "Some people find advert offensive" isn't a story. "Apple apologises for advert" is.

This wasn't true before the internet and it is especially wrong today.

Re: Apple apologizes for iPad 'Crush' ad that 'missed the mark'

#250

Post by Terretta »

serial_dev wrote: post #162
xnx wrote: post #51

9to5Google pointed out that the Apple ad is a near exact copy of this LG ad from 2008: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcUAQ2i5Tfo The (accidental?) plagiarism of the ad is nearly as bad as the vibe.

In my opinion, it's one of those ideas that are so obvious that I wouldn't necessarily think it's plagiarism. > It's a small electronic device that replaces so many real world things. It's like all these things 'zipped' into one... Okay good idea, but how do we make it look cool?... Epic music... And Explosions! The ad is actually less embarrassing than the fact that how uncreative this is. On the other hand, it's al…

> how uncreative this is ... aren't we just redoing that thing from 15 years ago?

People of a certain age are informed by shared cultural touchstones.

Those making ads in these timeframes are ages where they all experienced the Star Wars trash compactor scene as a visceral moment pressed into their psyches:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6u3QInIMVME

As a child, the blasters and light sabres are make believe, but the compactor closing in slowly on Luke, Leah, C3PO, that felt real. Kids could feel that big squeeze. It was ... VIVID.

When you start making create visual experiences (ads in particular), it's not uncommon you'll reference such touchstones. You'll get approved by marketing committees because they too have that touchstone in their pasts.

The original scene plots out as an increasing stress, but ends with a relief. Ad creatives often "quote" these if they feel they can match/replay the original emotional beats, here implied looming threat, visceral danger building agonizingly slowly, realization of total destruction, saved by suddenly revealed relief.

Nintendo, LG, and Apple all tried to have their "product placement" land in that surprise moment revealing the pressure relief: a sleight of hand where this moment, this thing, is the MacGuffin associated with the stress vanishing.

Is this uncreative? "Aren't we just redoing Star Wars New Hope?" Sure. But ads that connect to the beats of touchstones inside the viewer do evoke more reaction, and the ads aren't quoting each other, they're quoting the original.

Art often quotes art, the quoting considered both creative and effective.

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