I wonder if Apple CEO Tim Cook was surprised by the disgust many people felt after seeing Apple’s latest iPad commercial. In it, a variety of creative tools are flattened by an industrial press. Seeing a piano that, if maintained, can last about 50 years be squashed to promote a device that is supposed to be obsolete in less than 10 years is infuriating. The backlash was immediate.
The message many of us received was this: Apple, a trillion-dollar behemoth, will destroy everything beautiful and human, everything beautiful to look at and touch, and all that will be left is a thin glass layer. and metal plate.
Surprisingly, that’s what it means sell A product. “Buy the thing that destroys everything you love,” says Apple. That’s quite a change from the famous “1984” ad, in which Apple portrayed itself as a completely boring conformist. Sure, the new ad is silent – after all, Apple gained notoriety by targeting creative minds. But it also requires an embarrassingly narrow view of technology. Imagine being such an idiot that you believe the only good technology is new technology.
The iPad does not replace these experiences
This view of technology is fundamentally disrespectful. We are surrounded by things that are meant to last. Technology, in a much In a broader sense, it is inherently hopeful. It is a bright golden thread between our past and our future.
Language is the most fundamental technology with which we can build everything else. Writing down our thoughts meant we could begin to access them lifetimes of experience. The Pythagorean Theorem was so significant when it was first discovered that a cult grew up around it; I learned it in sixth grade because it was the basis for many things we later created. These fundamentals – language, mathematics – enabled a chain of events that made Apple’s existence possible.
There’s still a place for the technology that Apple trashes in its advertising. A TV screen is larger and more comfortable to use than an iPad when you don’t need to be on the go; That’s why most people still own one. A record player allows for the secondary enjoyment of trading physical items and meeting at record stores. The arcade video game exists in places where you meet other people.
The iPad does not replace these experiences. At best, it complements them. I have never met a professional carpenter who does his job using only a multi-tool. But if you’re trying to travel light, this Swiss Army knife is probably better than a full toolbox.
This ad highlights a particular Silicon Valley attitude: it despises the past outdated
This ad highlights a particular Silicon Valley attitude: it despises the past outdated, instead of respecting it as smart. In a sense, that’s what these companies have to do: they have products to sell. If Apple made something as durable as a piano, it would sell a lot fewer computers. In fact, the company has a history of undermining its own products in order to sell more of them: for example, it deliberately throttled its older iPhones. The company is also known to make its products difficult to repair and maintain.
In this ad, technology is disposable. I jumped as the piano was smashed. But apparently no one in the company did – and many people had to agree to this ad. The emotional value of the crushing is unmistakable; simply reverse the display as Reza Sixo Safai did, so all the creative tools the iPad offers instantly improve it. After all, the iPad can also be a creative tool, and isn’t that what the commercial was supposed to suggest?
Apple has a habit of suggesting that its older devices are outdated by releasing new versions that change their cases and design without changing what they are Do in any meaningful way. This ad isn’t about the creative uses of the iPad, but rather that it is slim. This is the big selling point: the thinnest ever. Apple was so focused on its exciting new marketing feature that it lost sight of what’s really important: the tools we use to make the things we love.