Have you seen Apple’s “Crush” ad? It features a huge huge hydraulic press crushing musical instruments, art supplies, google-eyed toys, and other beloved artifacts of imagination and creativity.

I remember seeing a video years ago that showed how a smartphone replaced a desktop full of tools like a calculator, notepad, rolodex, and so forth. But we saw these physical items being converted to apps, not crushed into shards.

Apple’s iconic “1984” ad took aim at soullessness and conformity, but this new ad ties its product to the destruction of these tools of human creativity.

Of course one purpose of an ad is to get people to talk about it, but for decades Apple marketed itself as the choice of creative people. Surely Apple knew professional artists would find this advert distressing.

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 tablet. The ad was produced in-house by Apple’s creative team, according to trade press reports.

The campaign has been hit by a wave of outrage, with responses on social media reacting to Cook’s X post accusing Apple of crushing “beautiful creative tools” and the “symbols of human creativity and cultural achievements.”

Source: A crushing backlash to Apple’s new iPad ad