Apple doesn't often make mistakes and rarely apologizes, but on Thursday its advertising chief said the company had made a mistake by making a new iPad commercial that showed an industrial compressor flattening tools for art, music and creativity. .
“Creativity is in our DNA at Apple, and it's incredibly important to us to design products that empower creatives around the world,” said Tor Myhren, the company's vice president of marketing communications, in a statement. tech-news/apple-apologizes-ipad-pro-crushed-ad-it-missed-mark/2559321″ title=”” rel=”noopener noreferrer” target=”_blank”>statement provided to AdAge publication. “Our goal is to always celebrate the countless ways users express themselves and bring their ideas to life through iPad. “We were wrong with this video and we are sorry.”
Myhren said Apple would no longer run the ad on television.
The company had faced a barrage of criticism from designers, actors and artists who saw the announcement as a metaphor for how Big tech profited from its work by crushing or co-opting artistic tools that humanity has used for centuries.
They found the crushing of a trumpet, a piano, paintings and a sculpture particularly disconcerting at a time when artists fear that generative artificial intelligence, which can write poetry and create movies, could take their jobs.
Apple intended the ad to send the opposite message: that its ultra-thin iPad Pro could power a variety of creative activities that previously required individual tools.
Apple unveiled the iPad commercial, called “Crush,” on Tuesday after revealing an update to its line of tablets. Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a post on x that it was a slim, advanced and powerful device. “Imagine all the things it will be used for,” he wrote.
The reversal adds to a series of rare apologies from Apple over the past 15 years, including one in 2012 from Cook for the shortcomings of its new Maps app. Problems with the app included incorrect directions and the incorrect location of certain landmarks.
Cook's apology for Maps broke with Apple's previous policy of resisting pressure after mistakes. In 2010, Apple was criticized for releasing an iPhone that dropped calls. Steve Jobs, the company's co-founder and Cook's predecessor, went on the offensive, saying at a news conference that the problem was not the phone but the way some customers held it.
The company, which had spent decades encouraging filmmakers, musicians and artists to use its devices, heard an immediate outcry from that group.
