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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'

#401

Post by ornornor »

mindwok wrote: post #347

It’s not my place to tell anyone how they should feel about anything, but the number of comments here suggesting people had a strong emotional reaction to this does kinda worry me. How do those of you who feel so strongly about this ad get through daily life? If I was feeling so upset about something like this, life would be pretty bad. Genuine question. EDIT: I appreciate the amount of good-faith discussion on this…

What bothers me the most is the casual destruction of perfectly functional, expensive (for some) items. It’s glorifying waste, and I’m sure there are individuals or families that would kill for the chance to get a piano, a trumpet, or the insanely overpriced Macs they can’t afford, while Apple is crushing them just to sell us more ewaste (seeing how apple in particular is at the forefront of anti repair)…

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

#402

Post by HPsquared »

Mtinie wrote: post #278
stuaxo wrote: post #225

Someone made a reversed version and it works well (it's the only version I've seen)... yeah, crushing musical instruments just comes across as needlessly destructive.

I had not considered that option, thank you for sharing that someone had. Conceptually it makes a lot more sense in reverse. “Look at every type of creative tool and instrument *contained* within this thin iPad” is inspiring. “Look at how we’ve crushed all these creative tools and instruments” is decidedly not.

Someone made a nice reversed version:

https://youtu.be/XYB6JJoDSuk

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

#403

Post by hydroreadsstuff »

mc32 wrote: post #322
lionkor wrote: post #233

I like it. You throw away all your hard-earned, expensive instruments, tools, and crush them to be sure. You then go buy an iPad, and the circle is complete: You're now a next-generation Apple consumer! Just turn on YouTube kids and watch slime videos for the rest of your life. Reject culture, consume the slop.

Apple is too skittish. There’s no reason to apologize. It’s taking the ‘crushing carbon into diamonds metaphor’ and using it for their product. In the beginning it looks over the top, ‘ultra violent’, but then it becomes a metaphor for how they view their product. Now, sure, it’s preposterous to think that this diamond of a thing can be as good as all the real objects it replaces, but that’s advertising.

If that was the intend an animation that doesn't literally crush things would have worked much better. Let it fall into a black hole and let an iPad emerge or whatever. The dramatic effect of a hydraulic press adds nothing positive.

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

#404

Post by dwallin »

mindwok wrote: post #347

It’s not my place to tell anyone how they should feel about anything, but the number of comments here suggesting people had a strong emotional reaction to this does kinda worry me. How do those of you who feel so strongly about this ad get through daily life? If I was feeling so upset about something like this, life would be pretty bad. Genuine question. EDIT: I appreciate the amount of good-faith discussion on this…

The WHOLE point of the ad in the first place was to make people feel strong positive emotions toward Apple products. It turns out they misjudged and for many people it didn’t evoke the type of emotions they thought it would. It’s not like people are up in arms about a spec sheet.

I think you are being extremely irrational in expecting people to not feel passionately about random things. Companies spend insane amounts of money influencing consumer sentiment for good reasons.

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

#405

Post by hnaccount_rng »

passion__desire wrote: post #256
benrutter wrote: post #245

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!"

I took the message that all that culture is now available in an even slimmer form factor. This is the problem with art. Unambiguous messaging is impossible as one casts a wider net of interpretation

I think everybody agrees that that was the _intended_ message. But it's a forced transition. At the end of the ad there is _just_ an iPad. It's not as if the user has any choice now. And that makes the ad very weak. Why is Apple even going into the destruction business? They are supposed to be a creative (creating?) company, if it were an Lockheed Martin ad it would have fit ;)

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

#406

Post by __rito__ »

mindwok wrote: post #347

It’s not my place to tell anyone how they should feel about anything, but the number of comments here suggesting people had a strong emotional reaction to this does kinda worry me. How do those of you who feel so strongly about this ad get through daily life? If I was feeling so upset about something like this, life would be pretty bad. Genuine question. EDIT: I appreciate the amount of good-faith discussion on this…

Nah, it's not exactly like that.

I get through regular life okay, but this a $1T company with hundreds of billions in cash, profit driven, using child labor in China indirectly, and engaging in walled-garden policies makes it worse.

They make all these gadgets that replaces incomes from many manufactures and puts it on a single hand. That's bad enough.

Now, they destroy all these beautiful things- a piano, a guitar, a camera, and a lot of valuable things to make a point that this single silicon-made, soulless corporate company-produced, cheap exploited labor induced thing is going to replace them. Those things of aesthetics and soul are destroyed to give rise to this thing.

That hits hard for me. Seriously. I thought that I was being a real snowflake when this ad made me uncomfortable, but was glad to see this backlash in large numbers. Maybe people still have souls.

You can give a thousand lessons in "nature of real circumstances and geopolitics", and this ad with all its backstory will still be wrong to me.

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

#407

Post by vehemenz »

Osmium wrote: post #30

Good, the ad was really disturbing. An ad is just an ad and not the biggest deal in the scheme of things but that was really unpleasant to watch. For me, it was the visual of needless destruction and waste as much as the meta-message.

Most people didn’t find the ad disturbing, so the offensiveness is a relation between you and the content, not the content itself.

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

#408

Post by haswell »

mindwok wrote: post #347

It’s not my place to tell anyone how they should feel about anything, but the number of comments here suggesting people had a strong emotional reaction to this does kinda worry me. How do those of you who feel so strongly about this ad get through daily life? If I was feeling so upset about something like this, life would be pretty bad. Genuine question. EDIT: I appreciate the amount of good-faith discussion on this…

I strongly disliked the ad. I also get through my days just fine. I don’t understand the insinuation that people who disliked it must be somehow unable to navigate daily life.

Here’s why I disliked it: I’m one of those people who finds themselves concerned and sometimes sad at the erosion of the humanity in art. Social media and AI are changing the nature of artistic expression in a way that often feels destructive. I’ve started to intentionally unplug and use devices less in order to stay connected to what I see as the good stuff in life.

To me, this ad is the culmination of what I dislike about tech.

If they had played the ad in reverse, I think I’d have really liked it. iPad as a tool for expression. Instead, it’s presented as a tool that supersedes expression. I suspect Apple was trying to communicate the former.

Edit to respond to the edit: highly sensitive people who have visceral reactions to stuff like this are canaries in the coal mine. We need them just as much as we need substantive discussion here. Some of the backlash also originated in Japan, where culturally this was quite offensive.

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

#409

Post by Tarq0n »

ornornor wrote: post #401
mindwok wrote: post #347

It’s not my place to tell anyone how they should feel about anything, but the number of comments here suggesting people had a strong emotional reaction to this does kinda worry me. How do those of you who feel so strongly about this ad get through daily life? If I was feeling so upset about something like this, life would be pretty bad. Genuine question. EDIT: I appreciate the amount of good-faith discussion on this…

What bothers me the most is the casual destruction of perfectly functional, expensive (for some) items. It’s glorifying waste, and I’m sure there are individuals or families that would kill for the chance to get a piano, a trumpet, or the insanely overpriced Macs they can’t afford, while Apple is crushing them just to sell us more ewaste (seeing how apple in particular is at the forefront of anti repair)…

Now think of how much of these items the budget of any given commercial could pay for.

Focusing on just the literal few in view in front of you is missing the forest for the trees.

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

#410

Post by rchaud »

thih9 wrote: post #280

> missed the mark It didn’t! It is a good clip. It accurately shows how tools are being replaced with digital and cloud. It’s a violent process and precious things get destroyed along the way. It totally hit the mark. But true, it doesn’t make people want to go grab an ipad, so I get why they don’t want to use it.

If anything, an ad like this is too real and lets slip the mask that is "Apple is for artists". Nope, Apple is for expanding the existing Apple-only ecosystem.

A classic arcade game experience is not going to be reproducible with a subscription to Apple Arcade. A stradivarius violin is not going to be replaced by Apple Logic Pro.

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