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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'

#731

Post by mattgreenrocks »

racl101 wrote: post #640
maxrobeyns wrote: post #506

My initial reaction to the ad, upon watching it in the launch event was "huh, that's a fun reference to the Hydraulic Press Channel". The slapstick elements (trumpet noise, squishy balls) made it come across as light-hearted, rather than an ominous display of force by a large company crushing artists' tools. This idea of 'squashing all these tools down to a thin slab of glass' made sense given their somewhat unusual…

> Perhaps the blowback is a sign of a wider weariness that people have accumulated towards big tech companies over the past few years, mixed with a nebulous malaise about 'AI' and what it means for the status quo and people's livelihoods. I think you hit it on the head. It's not so much anger about seeing a piano or a trumpet get crushed but more about the symbolism of it. Which, I think is definitely tone deaf on Ap…

It's also from Apple's long-time core audience. I'm not sure how people don't understand this, other than maybe they've forgotten the roots of Apple's comeback.

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

#732

Post by ethagknight »

yousif_123123 wrote: post #530

I didn't like the ad. I think the people creating it wanted to imply that it's as if they took all these things and put it in an iPad, where you can still achieve all the creativity while carrying a thin device. I don't think it's impossible to convey that message without destroying instruments and creative tools that are precious to so many. Maybe if they had made the animation very fast it would've appeared as a jo…

“Honey, I shrunk the iPad. And the composer. And the orchestra.” would have been a better angle

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

#735

Post by idontpost »

yousif_123123 wrote: post #530

I didn't like the ad. I think the people creating it wanted to imply that it's as if they took all these things and put it in an iPad, where you can still achieve all the creativity while carrying a thin device. I don't think it's impossible to convey that message without destroying instruments and creative tools that are precious to so many. Maybe if they had made the animation very fast it would've appeared as a jo…

[dead]

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

#736

Post by Apocryphon »

steve1977 wrote: post #342
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…

I challenge you to manufacture a well-sounding and nicely tuned piano and then reconsider the term "low tech"

I meant digital vs. analog, nothing pejorative

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

#737

Post by xyzwave »

dogman144 wrote: post #584

This ad said the quiet part out loud about what the average technologist thinks of the average liberal arts pursuit. It just had to manifest as an ad from an insulated marketing dept for it to finally happen “in the open.” No surprises, and it was nice to see it out stated clearly.

Maybe the average technologist, but for anyone who understands Apple's culture and history, your claim is not just inaccurate, but opposite of the truth.

Steve Jobs addressed this exact point during a 2011 keynote [0]:

> It is in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough—it’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the results that make our heart sing.

0. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlI1MR-qNt8

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

#738

Post by Apocryphon »

jjulius wrote: post #503
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…

> Aside from the destruction of low-tech artistic tools triggering non-tech people aspect... 604 comments on this HN post (at the time of writing this), the bulk of which appear to be opposed to this video, and you're trying to tell me that tech folk aren't, to use your word, "triggered"? C'mon now.

Of course people are, that’s the main source of the controversy. I’m just exploring a side aspect about why this ad doesn’t work.

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

#739

Post by chillingeffect »

__turbobrew__ wrote: post #700
some_random wrote: post #670

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the big thing here is that if you don't have an attachment to any of the items being crushed you probably don't feel as strongly. If you're a trumpet player, seeing a trumpet being crushed is going to be a bit distressing. If you're a photographer, you're putting a monetary value on those lenses being destroyed. If you're into old arcade machines, you're thinking about how many of those cabinets are left in t…

I don’t think it is healthy if you are emotionally distressed seeing a trumpet being crushed.

It depends on the context. On an entertainment yt channel, one single real trumpet, so what. But the context apple produced is the implication that the very concept of a trumpet is being destroyed and replaced with a thin, temporary simulacrum.

The difference is subtle. In the first case, a single real trumpet. Only worth a few hundred bucks. In the advertisement, the crushed trumpet is a symbol representing everything around trumpets: lessons, spit valves, centuries/milennia of history, inherited instruments, afternoons afterschool marching around on a football field with childhood friends.

Ce n'est pas une pipe.

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

#740

Post by giancarlostoro »

toyg wrote: post #560
yousif_123123 wrote: post #530

I didn't like the ad. I think the people creating it wanted to imply that it's as if they took all these things and put it in an iPad, where you can still achieve all the creativity while carrying a thin device. I don't think it's impossible to convey that message without destroying instruments and creative tools that are precious to so many. Maybe if they had made the animation very fast it would've appeared as a jo…

The original idea is sound: "we are squeezing all tools into the iPad". The problem is that you can't squeeze an object without resorting to animation. So instead they went for crushing , which carries destructive undertones. A lot of people have strong emotional attachments to objects like pianos and vinyl players; destroying them is a powerful trigger. If this had been done with animation, with some djinn magically…

The video is cool, but yeah, watching all these great items being crushed, is wow.
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