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An Apple ad for its new iPad tablet depicting musical instruments, artistic tools and games being crushed by a giant hydraulic press has been attacked in an online backlash for cultural insensitivity.
The one-minute video was launched by Apple CEO Tim Cook in support of his new iPad range. It’s the first time in two years that the US tech giant has revamped the range to offset declining sales.
The campaign – set to the 1971 hit by Sonny and Cher All I ever need is you – is intended to show how much Apple was able to put into the thinner tablet. According to trade press reports, the ad was produced internally by Apple’s creative team.
The campaign was swept by a wave of outrage. There were reactions on social media to Cook’s X post, which accused Apple of destroying “beautiful creative tools” and “symbols of human creativity and cultural achievement.”
Advertising industry executives argued the ad was a misstep for the Silicon Valley giant, which under late co-founder Steve Jobs was praised for its ability to capture consumers’ attention through previous campaigns.
Christopher Slevin, creative director of marketing agency Inkling Culture, compared the iPad ad unfavorably to a famous Apple campaign directed by Ridley Scott called “1984” for the original Macintosh computer, which positioned Apple as a liberator of a dystopian, monochrome world .
“Apple’s new iPad commercial is essentially them turning into what they tried to destroy in the 1984 ad,” Slevin said.
Actor Hugh Grant accused Apple of “Silicon Valley’s destruction of the human experience” on X.
However, Richard Exon, founder of marketing agency Joint, said: “A more important question is: Does the ad serve its purpose?” It’s catchy, distinctive and I now know that the new iPad has even more to offer, while being thinner than ever .”
Consumer insights platform Zappi conducted a consumer survey on the ad, which suggested that the idea of hydraulic press crushing art was controversial.
It said the ad underperformed benchmarks on commonly searched emotions such as happiness and laughter and outperformed on traditionally negative emotions such as shock and confusion, with older people more likely to react negatively than younger consumers.
Nataly Kelly, chief marketing officer at Zappi, said: “Is the Apple iPad advert a work of genius or a sign of dystopian times? It really depends on how old you are. The shock value lies in the power of this advert, which is inherently controversial, so the fact that people are even talking about it is a win.”