Apple gets crushing backlash to its ‘gross’ iPad ad from celebrities and

From its pop-art iPod commercials to its celebrity-led Mac vs. PC campaign, Apple hasn’t had many marketing missteps to its name.

But a controversial ad for the company’s latest iPad model has critics railing against the tech giant for what they say is a slight against artists and the creative community — a demographic once drawn to Apple products.

The ad, titled “Crush!”, shows an array of creative objects — among them musical instruments, art sculptures, typewriters, a record table and a vintage arcade machine — being slowly pulverized by a hydraulic press.

(You know, the thing that David Letterman frequently used to crush bowling balls for fun. Similar videos now dominate TikTok feeds everywhere.)

Once the press has demolished the spread, it releases, and a glimmering new iPad appears, having replaced — or made obsolete — everything that came before it. All I Ever Need Is You by Cher and Sonny rings out.

WATCH | The Apple ad upsetting artists: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntjkwIXWtrc

The spot went viral as critics denounced its message. Some found it particularly hard to stomach the imagery of big tech crushing creative tools as artists grapple with the threats posed by artificial intelligence.

“This new ad by Apple perfectly depicts what Big Tech has sadly come to stand for: crushing human creativity in the name of technological innovation and selling it to us as progress,” one X user wrote.

“It’s tone-deaf at least, malicious at worst, in the current climate of [AI] replacing human arts.”

Krista Ball, an author in Edmonton who is also an Apple shareholder, said she watched the commercial and had a “visceral, gross reaction — almost the same way as you feel when you see a political ad that’s really gross.”

“The iPad does not replace the tools of pen and paper,” Ball said in an interview with CBC News. “Apple has always had this reputation of trying to work with art, to expand art, so to literally destroy art to say ‘we’re better,’ that is not appealing to artists.”

Apple has long been known for developing technology that complements creative work — ranging from user-friendly tools like iMovie and GarageBand for editing film and audio, to professional tools such as Logic Pro and Final Cut Pro.

In a social media post introducing the commercial, Apple CEO Tim Cook seemed to echo that message, writing of the new iPad, “Just imagine all the things it’ll be used to create.”

But British actor Hugh Grant saw things differently. “The destruction of the human experience. Courtesy of Silicon Valley,” Grant wrote in response to Cook’s post.  American actress Justine Bateman put it bluntly, asking Cook: “Truly, what is wrong with you?”

CBC News has reached out to Apple for comment.

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