Apple's shockingly bad iPad ad is poorly timed and raising many questions

By Therese Poletti

Apple was famous for some of its well-crafted ad campaigns under co-founder Steve Jobs

Apple Inc.'s new ad for the latest iPad is a shockingly bad image for a company that has for years sold its products to creators, sparking a flurry of outraged comments among consumers and its customers.

On Tuesday, Apple (AAPL) introduced a new iPad with a thinner screen, better processors and an improved pencil, all seemingly incremental improvements that did not generate much buzz. But the company's ad shows a massive compressor, slowly coming down and violently crushing a trumpet, a piano, a metronome, a guitar, a sculpted bust, a can of paint, even a vintage videogame. It has been generating horrified and bewildered comments online since Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook shared the video on social media, saying "Just imagine all the things it'll be used to create."

One commenter said that co-founder Steve Jobs would never have approved the ad, which many are interpreting as symbolizing the crushing of human creativity.

"What makes the Apple ad so jarring to me is Apple prides itself on its commitment to artistry," Parrot Analytics strategist Julia Alexander tweeted Wednesday. "This? Blatantly anti-artist in its visuals. It's the anti-Apple thesis. It's the anti-Apple ad. Odd!"

Among the ad's few defenders on X was one who wrote: "They are creatively showcasing the fact that all of these tools can be 'squeezed' in to a device so thin. Its not an attack on artists and its not an attack on humanity."

Several others posted a better, recreated ad, using Apple's iMovie software, by going backwards so all the creative tools were reconstructed from the crusher.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In an earlier era, under Jobs, Apple released two memorable ad campaigns that celebrated the human spirit and individuality, as well as creators themselves. The commercial for the launch of the Macintosh in 1984 famously ran only one time on television, and likened IBM PC users to lemmings who marched supervised in a dark, Orwellian landscape, with a brave woman running through, throwing a hammer at the giant screen with the image of Big Brother. The ad was directed by Ridley Scott.

Sci-fi author Yuval Kordov on Wednesday tweeted a reference to that iconic ad: "Forty years ago, Apple released the 1984 commercial as a bold statement against a dystopian future. Now you are that dystopian future. Congratulations."

The company's "Think Different" ad campaign from 1997 to 2002, which featured a range of "crazy ones" - inventors, artists, musicians, film directors, political revolutionaries and others - celebrated outside-the-box thinkers. Jobs was heavily involved in the campaign, and there actually was a version narrated by Jobs, though the one that ran for several years was narrated by actor Richard Dreyfuss.

The new ad for the iPad is raising a few questions about Apple's current vision of itself and its relationship with customers in the creative-arts fields. The company has seen revenue decline for several quarters and some analysts on Wall Street believe it is in an innovation slump, and falling behind in AI.

Also read: Apple's stock needs to get unstuck and its innovation rut may not be helping.

If Apple was hoping to get more attention for its new iPad with this ad, it certainly got it. Whether consumers will really leave their Apple products behind because of an ad is unlikely, but the way the company's message is being interpreted is not helping at a very fraught time.

-Therese Poletti

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05-08-24 1631ET

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