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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'

#491

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.…

Such a good point that having things come out of an ipad would have been the effective way to portray the same point they are trying to make.

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

#492
post #314

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.

Still less dystopian than the vision pro with a dad running around his kids with a walled-garden-camera-helmet. Once may have been a mistake, twice means there's some psychopath marketing VP at the helm OR a joker trying to see far they can go before somebody actually watches ads they're doing before they go live.

I was giving them the slight benefit of the doubt for that one, the VP can consume 3D photos and they hadn’t released the new iPhone that can take those photos, so it was more of a derived situation to get the plot to “you can rewatch rewarding 3D movies you took”.

I do agree the test marketing groups are not providing good feedback about secondary interpretations…

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

#494

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 agree. This a the quote from the article, someone called it the "destruction of human experience". We have to be a little bit tougher than this, right?

I can read "the destruction of human experience" two ways. One, it's a just a descriptive label of the symbolism the act of crushing creative instruments/tools/materials represents, even if that symbolism is clearly not something the creators ever intended. Two, is the more hyperbolic--or perhaps even hysteric--you're literally destroying the human experience and it's hurting me emotionally take. A lot of the commentary on social media is probably closer to the former, but it doesn't discount the latter.

It's pretty obvious what marketing intended. You take a bunch of creative instruments/tools/materials, squish them inside the iPad, and you get to carry them with you with your iPad. Heck, I'm almost certain it's been done before as a cartoon gag: everything gets sucked into one super tool. There's probably an old Looney Tunes episode with something close enough--maybe stuffing books inside someone's head to teach them the material--to make my point.

In any case, the metaphor's pretty clear; unfortunately, the Crush ad completely botches it. There's no mechanism by which the props 'enter' the iPad. Instead, you just see wanton destruction, the hydraulic press lifts up, and then there's an iPad sitting on a giant chunk of steel. Paint is dripping down the side, but the press itself is oddly sterile. The mess? The parts? The paint? All gone on the press except for what's left on the floor. And if it's smashed into itty bitty bits, even if it's now metaphorically "inside" the iPad, what's the point? Did the press somehow squeeze out some metaphysical meaning from the tools that got sucked into the iPad? Now throw in some of the angst about the possibility of generative AI replacing some creative jobs.

If the idea is that an iPad will 'replace' those tools--or more likely, just let the user take them with you wherever they go--there's an implicit assumption that the user values those tools and would like them so close at hand. So literally destroying tools that, for many artists and creatives, are objects of affection closely tied to memories that are critical parts of their self-conception, is an absurd kind of symbolism that would have never made it off the drawing board under Jobs. People tend to respect their tools, and filming their meaningless destruction is going to rub people the wrong way even though it really has no actual impact. Especially with an ad that's simultaneously trying to get you to buy the product they were symbolically destroyed to revel.

Will Crush turn many people off from buying a new iPad when they need one? Almost certainly not. But it does underscore that Apple's changed as as a company. Apple users--myself included--might still love the products they buy, but it doesn't seem like they're in love with them like it once seemed (for way too many of their users).

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

#495
post #246

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 r…

I don't understand it either. I do creative writing, and it didn't shock me or made me feel bad. I thought the ad was meant to show what kind of CGI you could make with an iPad.

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

#496
Good art is art that makes you feel something. The ending of Requiem For A Dream is good art, as is this ad.

It may be unfit for purpose as an ad, given how many people reacted with negative emotions, but I don’t think they did anything wrong that warrants an apology (except perhaps to their shareholders for running what may turn out to be an ineffective ad).

Then again, all publicity is good publicity.

I liked that the ad had a hollywood destruction-for-destruction’s sake spectacle to it. I wondered how much was CG and how much wasn’t, and how much stuff was actually destroyed. Some of the closeup shots must have been practical, or CG these days is way better than I realized.

It ultimately doesn’t matter, though. Destruction on this scale is irrelevant.

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

#497
post #93
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> destruction of low-tech artistic tools triggering non-tech people This was really poorly worded and sounded very elitist and dismissive, I trust this was not the intention.

On the contrary, I wish this was dismissive. It's about time that the Overton window gets shifted about the overly nostalgic articles that get praised by "the right people", which means we need to "read the room" and share the same opinions. It is an absolutely good thing that an inexpensive device is replacing an expensive one, and that impoverished children will be able to create music with an inexpensive iPad and…

Between the fact that you think that entry-level instruments cost more than iPads, that somehow "fingering" an instrument is a bad or obsolete thing, and that you think iPads are affordable to the impoverished, I'm really not sure where to begin correcting you.

Just... yikes. I hate to be flippant, but you're so out of touch that my only thought is to tell you to touch grass.

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

#499

I think the ad is great and funny. It says: you don't need those anymore. Just buy the iPad. Look at all this space you'll save. All the items you won't need to buy. Minimalism, utility, fun. I think people who get offended by seeing objects being destroyed are being hyper-hypocritical, because I bet you all replace your phones every few years, replace your cars every few years, replace all of your stuff even if the…

> I bet you all replace

Yeah, AFTER they stop working, not when they are perfectly good :)

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

#500
post #207
post #95

I used to play piano and guitar. This ad is soul-crushing.

Why is it soul crushing? It looks to me like people are projecting their fears and insecurities onto this single ad. Sure, strategically Apple possibly should've caught on before releasing, but people are still being overly sensitive. Should everyone be throwing tantrums about Devin as it's presenting itself to replace developers? It is what it is, things change.

Imagine an ad for a virtual puppy game using hydraulic press to crush real dogs, showing closeup of twisted broken head and blood splashing on camera and all. Surely you can understand why most people can get very upset seeing that, and dog owners in particular can feel like their soul is being crushed?

Well, artists and musicians can have as much emotional attachment to their tools as pet owners to their pets. To most people the ad is only slight disturbing, but to the artists (and the nostalgic) it’s soul crushing. That’s why Apple is apologizing: they’ve offended their core market.

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