Apple Axes iPad Pro "Crush" Advert After Huge Creator Backlash

Apple unveiled its new iPad Pros this week, but after a misguided advertisement sparked a controversy which threatens to overshadow the new tablets, Apple has made an uncharacteristic about-face. The ad spot, "Crush," depicts a giant pile of artistic instruments, tools, and ephemera being crushed by a hydraulic press, which then lifts back up to reveal the new iPad. The spot was meant to convey the fact that the new iPad Pro is Apple's thinnest product ever, but most viewers simply felt like Apple was attacking the very concept of creativity as they watched things like a piano, paint cans, and camera lenses get crushed by a giant machine.

Apple reversed course today, axing the ad entirely and issuing an unexpected apology after a massive online backlash and dozens of op-eds from major publications railed against the advertisement. In a statement to marketing trade Ad Age, Apple's VP of marketing communications, Tor Myhren, said, "Creativity is in our DNA at Apple, and it's incredibly important to us to design products that empower creatives all over the world. 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."

Apologies from Apple are exceedingly rare, which only demonstrates just how furious people were with the misguided ad. In an era where AI threatens to erode creative professions, and tech feels more omnipresent than ever, it's easy to see how an ad like "Crush" was a tone-deaf way to promote the new iPad Pro, which seems like a great product on paper. It's a strange misstep from a company famed for its pristine advertisements, and however thin the iPad is, it seems the public's patience for tech shenanigans is even thinner.

The backlash to Apple's "Crush" video ad promoting the new iPad Pro was swift and fierce. On X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, users didn't hold back. Economist Yanis Varoufakis wrote in part, "Tim Cook has just revealed his techno-feudal urge to crush everything of cultural value in his quest for power. It is time for humanity to reprimand him." Meanwhile, celebrated author Sterling Holywhitemountain called the ad "a paragon of the ugliness / psychopathy / anti art sentiment behind a certain kind of thinking in tech," and tech journalist Paris Marx remarked, "Like Miyazaki said of AI, Apple's new iPad Pro ad is 'an insult to life itself.'"

The backlash didn't stay contained to X, as many respected publications ran articles railing against the perceived assault on creativity implied by Apple's iPad commercial. "Apple's 'Crush' ad is disgusting," read TechCrunch's headline, while The Atlantic asked, "What was the company thinking?"

While the ad remains up on both YouTube and Tim Cook's X profile in all its can't-look-away horror, Apple now plans not to air the spot on TV, according to Ad Age. It's a shame that this bizarre bad commercial is forcing Apple to shift its focus away from the product it's supposed to promote since the new iPad Pro spec sheet does seem like a remarkable piece of hardware. But this iPad ad controversy should send a message to the tech industry: just because you're innovating something new doesn't mean you should disparage older items many people still hold dear.