Apple accidentally tells the truth

"Crush" ad is a swing and a big, big miss

I had finished drafting last week’s post when I stumbled on the controversy surrounding Apple’s new iPad Pro ad. I wanted to add “a comment” about it to that post, because it felt so fitting, but there was just too much to say.

You may have heard about the “Crush” ad by now. It’s tailor-made for a discussion of technology, creativity, and humanity. The most interesting thing about the ad, for me, is that, when I first read all this, I found myself saying, “It’s Apple. Can it really be that bad?” as I read about it.

Then I watched it, and very literally started to feel sick, because it’s not that bad. It’s worse. I understand that they were trying to say that the iPad can let you do a million creative things, but boy, is this not the way. The symbolism is powerful, but not in the way they thought.

I’ve watched it several times now. It doesn’t get better.

As if that’s not enough, the song says “All I ever need is you” and “Give me a reason to build my world around you,” which is creepy in and of itself, especially when “you” is a shiny silicon-and-glass tech product, and you’ve just been writing about tech’s dehumanizing effects. (And we won’t even go into what happens to the little emoji ball you see in the still below—I know it’s just a toy, and it’s obvious what’s coming, but it’s anthropomorphic enough that I still found it deeply unpleasant to watch, especially given the context.)

As my friend

Hilary Hattenbach

said after she watched it, “It just breaks my heart that they crushed a piano.” And why wouldn’t it?

It’s like Apple decided to stop pretending and tell us we should only ever want our tech toys because who needs the real thing? In fact, that’s essentially what director/writer/producer Asif Kapadia said, very eloquently:

Like iPads but don’t know why anyone thought this ad was a good idea It is the most honest metaphor for what tech companies do to the arts, to artists musicians, creators, writers, filmmakers: squeeze them, use them, not pay well, take everything then say it’s all created by them

A vastly improved version of the ad was posted by another wonderful director, Reza Sixo Safai, and boy, if only Apple had thought for ten seconds and done this instead. His is one of several remakes along this same line.

And this response from Halide Camera co-founder Sebastiaan de With explains why we have such a visceral reaction to the original ad:

I found it interesting to read the Japanese backlash responses to this, some particularly disturbed because of a belief in “Tsukumogami” — the idea that creative tools can possess a spirit of their own (a beautiful notion), so destroying them is truly evil.

… not a great look

I use Apple products, and have for more than 20 years. This is the first time I’ve felt the impulse to hurl them all out of my house. (I’m not sure I’ve ever felt that impulse about anything in response to an ad, in fact.) That’s not practical, unfortunately, but I’m not sure I’ll ever trust them the same way again. It’s all side-eye from here on out, Tim Cook.

I’ve seen dismissive comments on LinkedIn about the ad claiming that “some people are just over sensitive.” Business Insider ran a piece saying the reaction is all overblown because “It’s just an iPad ad.”

I have to wonder if these folks are sensitive enough. Did they never listen to a relative playing their guitar? Inherit their dad’s beloved trumpet? Play in the school band or sing in a choir? Create a sculpture or use one of those little wooden human figures in art class? Play Space Invaders at the mall arcade? Listen to a record??

Even if you don’t go for the idea that these things can possess a spirit of their own, they’re symbols of the experiences and people that shaped a lot, if not all, of us, and therefore they hold tremendous value to us—quite reasonably so.

More to the point, if you see the reaction to the ad as overly sensitive or sentimental, why? What’s missing in you that makes that kind of sensitivity seem silly? This reaction feels incredibly cynical to me, and like a reflection of the way our relationship with tech, and our tech overlords, has led to a dehumanizing view of the world.

If you can’t see destroying a metronome as an affront to music itself, and even to humanity—even if, yes, you can download a metronome app for your phone, which is indeed very handy—and think people are just looking for their next outrage addiction fix… I’m not sure what to say. (For the record, I believe outrage addiction is a very real thing, and a key part of why our societies are falling apart these days… but almost all of outrage addiction is about manufactured anger, whereas this ad hits something deeply, humanly, visceral for people. It hits us in the very center of our being, in a way that’s as sad as it is angry.)

Apple has pulled the ad from TV as a result of the backlash, and made statements about how they’re so pro-creativity, but the irony here is that not only did they make a horrifyingly anti-arts/creativity ad, they completely ripped off one from LG from 2008. (Crushing things is also a big TikTok trend right now, I’m told.)

On a side note, am I the only one who wonders about our cultural obsession with thinness? The joke 30 years ago was that the only woman who was thin enough for approval in our society was one who’d dwindled down to absolutely nothing (and we could have a whole conversation just unpacking that notion, and whether we’ve made any progress since).

Now it seems our tech has to be the same way. When will they decide to market nothing whatsoever—our new iPad is so thin it’s invisible!—because they figure we’ll buy it, like the emperor and his fancy clothes?

I hope Apple really sits down and looks at how they got this so wrong and does better from here on out. More than that, though, I hope we all look at what we value about creativity and the arts—and why—and start making it a priority.

Where is it a priority for you right now? Tell us in a comment below!