Apple apologises for iPad advert that ‘missed the mark’

Apple has apologised for a controversial advert plugging its new iPad following a fierce online backlash.

The one-minute clip shows a collection of artistic objects – including paints, books and musical instruments – being crushed by an industrial press. 

The ‘tasteless’ and ‘insulting’ promo was widely slammed, including by English actor Hugh Grant.

The Love Actually star posted on X (formerly Twitter): ‘The destruction of the human experience. Courtesy of Silicon Valley.’

In a statement given to Ad Age, Apple said it was sorry and that it ‘missed the mark’. 

‘Our goal is to always celebrate the myriad of ways users express themselves and bring their ideas to life through iPad,’ the trillion-dollar firm said.

‘We missed the mark with this video, and we’re sorry.’ 

Plans to broadcast the ad on TV have reportedly been scrapped.

However, the ad is still on Apple’s YouTube channel, where it has over 1.4 million views and counting. 

An Apple spokesperson declined to comment further but directed inquiries to the Ad Age report. 

In the short clip – which was originally posted to X by Apple CEO Tim Cook – the artistic objects are slowly turned to bits by the metal press as ‘All I Ever Need is You’ by Sonny and Cher plays.

When the press lifts up again, the pulverized remains have vanished and the new iPad Pro appears instead. 

‘The most powerful iPad ever is also the thinnest,’ a narrator says at the end of the commercial. 

It seems the collection of objects is supposed to represent everything that the new iPad is capable of – from sketching art to playing music and displaying documents. 

It’s also meant to highlight the tablet as the thinnest product Apple has ever made – although, ironically, at 5.1mm (0.2 inch), it would be destroyed by the industrial press too. 

Unfortunately for Apple, artists considered the suggestion that one of its product could replace all of their tools as ‘insulting’. 

British filmmaker Asif Kapadia said he doesn’t know why anyone at Apple ‘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,’ he posted on X. 

Another furious X user called it ‘an absolutely tone-deaf and insulting ad’.

He said: ‘The visual messaging is terrible Like who thought literally CRUSHING THE ARTS AND THEIR TOOLS was the move to make to market this towards creatives?’ 

Someone else posted: ‘With all the Apple tech knowhow, if you really insisted on producing such a tasteless advert, you could have used cgi [computer generated imagery].

‘The fact that you chose to destroy things that could have been used by properly talented people speaks volumes about you, your company, and the state of things.’ 

Yet another said: ‘At a time when artists, musicians and creatives are more worried than ever that tech companies are trying to crush them into dust for profit, along comes Apple and makes an *ad* whose whole message is: yes that is exactly what we’re doing.’ 

One person reversed the advert, showing the iPad being crushed and the objects appearing in its place, saying they’d ‘fixed it’. 

Other users figured that the controversy generated by the advert would simply help Apple sell its products. 

James Bore, tech expert at consultancy Bores Group, said the ad ‘kind of shows how disconnected they are from actual creative efforts’.

‘I think they may have alienated a not-insignificant part of their target market by thinking like technologists rather than creatives,’ he told MailOnline. 

‘There were much better ways to create the same message, without destroying things that their customers will feel sentimental about for a publicity stunt. 

‘Unless of course they were going deliberately for the controversy sells angle, which I can’t rule out entirely.’ 

It’s unclear how much Apple spent on the advert; MailOnline has contacted the tech giant for more information. 

Forty years ago, Apple was responsible for what’s been described as one of the greatest commercials, called ‘1984’, directed by Ridley Scott. 

The ad – plugging the original Apple Macintosh computer – portrays a dystopian setting influenced by George Orwell’s famous book where humanity is saved from ‘conformity’. 

Christopher Slevin, creative director for marketing agency Inkling Culture, said the message of the new ad is effectively the opposite. 

‘Apple’s new iPad spot is essentially them turning into the thing they said they were out to destroy in the 1984 ad,’ he wrote on LinkedIn. 

Apple unveiled the iPad Pro along with a slightly cheaper iPad Air and an Apple Pencil at an unveiling event on Tuesday.

However, people were left asking ‘who still buys iPads’, as the line only makes up around 6 per cent of the company’s sales.

Aside from its extra-thin profile, the new iPad Pro is fasters due to a new AI-focused M4 chip with a larger ‘neural engine’ that can complete 38 trillion tasks per second. 

The £799 iPad Air is equipped with the less-capable M2 chip, but both iPads come in two screen sizes – 11 inches and 13 inches. 

The Magic Pencil, Apple’s £129 ($129) stylus, also gets haptic controls in the form of a ‘squeeze function’ and the ability to roll the pencil to change brush shapes.  

Apple’s next event is Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), from June 10-14.

Although WWDC generally focuses on new software rather than hardware, the event may even include a big update on Apple’s recent work on AI, where it’s been falling behind compared to rivals such as Microsoft and Google. 

Apple boss Tim Cook has also teased a ‘huge’ AI announcement that’s coming ‘later this year’ – possibly a product akin to ChatGPT.