Generally, Apple can be relied upon for clever, well-produced advertising, but with its latest release, which features a tower of creative tools and analog items literally squeezed into the shape of the iPad, the company has it Target missed. Many, including myself, reacted negatively and profoundly to this, and we should talk about why.
This is not just because we watch things being destroyed. There are countless video channels dedicated to smashing, burning, exploding and generally destroying everyday objects. And of course we all know that this kind of thing happens every day at transfer stations and recycling centers. So that’s not it.
And it’s not like the stuff itself is that valuable. Sure, a piano is worth something. But we see them blown up all the time in action movies and don’t feel guilty about it. I like pianos, but that doesn’t mean we can’t do without a few hand-me-down baby grand pianos. The same goes for the rest: Most of the time it’s junk that you can buy on Craigslist for a few bucks or for free at a landfill. (Maybe not the processing station.)
The problem isn’t with the video itself, which, to be honest with the people who directed and shot it, is actually very well done. The problem is not the media, but the message.
We all understand the point of the ad: you can do all of these things on an iPad. Great. Of course, we could do it on the last iPad, but this one is thinner (nobody asked for that, by the way; cases no longer fit) and a few percent better.
What we all understand, however, because we live in the world unlike Apple’s advertising executives, is that the things being squashed here represent the material, the tangible, the real. And the real has value. Value that Apple clearly believes can shatter into another black mirror.
This belief is abhorrent to me. And apparently for many others too.
Destroying a piano in a music video or Mythbusters episode is actually an act of creation. Even destroying a piano (or a monitor, a paint can or a drum kit) for no reason at all is wasteful at worst!
But what Apple is doing is destroying these things to convince you that you don’t need them — All you need is the company’s little device that can do all that and more, and you don’t need pesky things like strings, keys, knobs, brushes, or mixing stations.
We are all dealing with the impact of the mass media shift towards digital and always-online. In many ways it’s really good! I think technology has helped us tremendously.
But in another, equally real way, digital transformation feels harmful and forced, a technotopian, billionaire-approved vision of the future where every child has an AI best friend and can learn to play virtual guitar on a cold pane of glass.
Does your child like music? You don’t need a harp, throw it in the dump. An iPad is completely sufficient. Do you like painting? Here, Apple Pencil, just as good as pens, watercolors, oils! Books? Don’t make us laugh! Destroy them. Paper is worthless, use another sieve. Why not read in Apple Vision Pro, with even fake paper?
What Apple seems to have forgotten is that it’s the things in the real world – the very things Apple destroyed – that give the fake versions of those things value in the first place.
A virtual guitar cannot replace a real guitar; That’s like thinking that a book can replace its author.
That doesn’t mean we can’t value both for different reasons. But the Apple ad conveys the message that the future it wants has no paint bottles, no dials to turn, no sculptures, no physical instruments, and no paper books. This is of course the future that we have been working on for years, but it was not expressed quite so clearly before.
If someone tells you who they are, believe them. Apple tells you very clearly what it is and what it wants the future to be. If this future doesn’t disgust you, you’re welcome.