Apple has apologised for an advert showing musical instruments, artistic tools and games being crushed by a giant hydraulic press that left it facing accusations of cultural insensitivity.
The one-minute video was launched by Apple chief executive Tim Cook to support its new iPads, the first time the US tech group has overhauled the range of tablets for two years as it seeks to reverse faltering sales.
The campaign — soundtracked by Sonny and Cher’s 1971 hit All I Ever Need Is You — is designed to show how much Apple has been able to squeeze into the thinner device. The ad was produced in-house by Apple’s creative team, according to trade press reports.
The campaign was hit by a wave of outrage, with social media users responding to Cook’s X post by accusing Apple of crushing “beautiful creative tools” and the “symbols of human creativity and cultural achievements”.
Advertising industry executives argued the ad represented a mis-step for the Silicon Valley company, which under late co-founder Steve Jobs was lauded for its ability to capture consumer attention through past campaigns.
Apple’s vice-president of marketing communications Tor Myhren said on Thursday that the company had “missed the mark” with the video, in a statement first given to Ad Age. Apple added that it would not air the ad on television, as the advertising publication said it had planned to do.
“Creativity is in our DNA at Apple, and it’s incredibly important to us to design products that empower creatives all over the world,” Myhren said. “Our goal is to always celebrate the myriad of ways users express themselves and bring their ideas to life through iPad.”
“We missed the mark with this video, and we’re sorry,” he said.
Christopher Slevin, creative director for marketing agency Inkling Culture, compared the iPad ad unfavourably with a famous Apple campaign directed by Ridley Scott called “1984” for the original Macintosh computer, which positioned Apple as liberating a dystopian, monochrome world.
“Apple’s new iPad spot is essentially them turning into the thing they said they were out to destroy in the 1984 ad,” said Slevin.
Actor Hugh Grant accused Apple of “the destruction of the human experience courtesy of Silicon Valley” on X.
However, Richard Exon, founder of marketing agency Joint, said: “A more important question is: does the ad do its job? It’s memorable, distinctive and I now know the new iPad has even more in it yet is thinner than ever.”
Consumer insights platform Zappi conducted consumer research on the ad that suggested that the idea of the hydraulic press crushing art was divisive.
It said the ad underperformed benchmarks in typically sought-after emotions such as happiness and laughter and overperformed in traditionally negative emotions including shock and confusion, with older people more likely to have a negative response than younger consumers.
Nataly Kelly, chief marketing officer at Zappi, said: “Is the Apple iPad ad a work of genius or the sign of the dystopian times? It really depends on how old you are. The shock value is the power of this advert, which is controversial by design, so the fact that people are talking about it at all is a win.”
