'Music Crushing' Apple iPad Ad Cops Flack Online

Apple has shared an advertisement for the newest iPad Pro, which upset a lot of followers in the process.

The new iPad Pro has been described as “the thinnest product” Apple has ever created, showcases the “most advanced display we’ve ever produced”, and contains “the incredible power of the M4 chip”.

It’s not the actual product that is upsetting people, but the advertisement Apple CEO Tim Cook shared on X (formerly known as Twitter) yesterday (8 May).

The advertisement is filmed in a room full of gorgeous, expensive musical instruments, such as pianos, guitars, trumpets, and metronomes, and products, including a turntable, speakers, and arcade games. The result? A hydraulic press destroys every instrument in the advertisement.

All that’s left at the end of the advertisement is the new iPad Pro, unscathed by the destruction. The iPad Pro is highlighted as All I Ever Need Is You by Sonny & Cher plays in the background.

Apple’s new advertisement has been perceived as tone deaf by followers, with one user writing on X, “The symbolism of indiscriminately crushing beautiful creative tools is an interesting choice.” Another added, “Forty years ago, Apple released the 1984 commercial as a bold statement against a dystopian future. Now you are that dystopian future. Congratulations.”

The comments continued, with another person writing, “It is a heartbreaking, uncomfortable, and egotistic advertisement. When I see this result, I'm ashamed to buy Apple products since nineteen years.” Someone else said, “This will be studied in marketing courses for decades to come as an example of a totally botched ad: how did the creative team and leadership get it so wrong?”

You can watch the new Apple advertisement below.

In a recent interview, Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor reminisced on his time working with Apple to create a new streaming service.

“It was a unique opportunity to work at the biggest company in the world at a high level,” he said before revealing that he went into the collaboration with potential rose-coloured glasses on:

I thought maybe at Apple there could be influence to pay in a more fair or significant way because a lot of these services are just a rounding error compared to what comes in elsewhere, unlike Spotify where their whole business is that [but] everyone’s trying to hold onto their little piece of the pie, and it is what it is.

Meet the new iPad Pro: the thinnest product we’ve ever created, the most advanced display we’ve ever produced, with the incredible power of the M4 chip. Just imagine all the things it’ll be used to create. pic.twitter.com/6PeGXNoKgG

— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) May 7, 2024