In a huge win for irony and general loss for the human spirit, Apple has unveiled its new advertisement for the latest version if the iPad Pro. The spot was shared by company CEO Tim Cook and shows a room of vintage instruments, including guitars, pianos, trumpets, and metronomes, as well as turntables, speakers, and arcade games all crushed to dust.
Over the backdrop of Sonny & Cher’s “All I Ever Need Is You,” the camera captures the destruction, before pulling away to reveal the latest, ultra-thin version of the iPad Pro.
The ad may have been attempting to capitalize on or riff off an ASMR TikTok trend that shows hydraulic presses in action and asks viewers to comment on the levels of satisfaction for each — but instead, the result here feels tone-deaf and dystopian.
The promotion has already started receiving backlash on Twitter, with users pointing out the glaring metaphor at play. “Just an astonishingly perfect representation of what the tech industry is doing and an illustration of the massive gap between how the purveyors see it and how horrifying everyone else finds it,” wrote one user.
“Crushing the symbols of human creativity to produce a homogenized branded slab is pretty much where the tech industry is at in 2024,” observed another. “Can’t recall the last time I saw a promo that so immediately and completely turned me against the product it was supposed to be selling,” reads one comment.
Watch the full ad below.
Meet the new iPad Pro: the thinnest product we’ve ever created, the most advanced display we’ve ever produced, with the incredible power of the M4 chip. Just imagine all the things it’ll be used to create. pic.twitter.com/6PeGXNoKgG
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) May 7, 2024
