Apple Ad Suffers a Crushing Blow

On paper, the Crush! ad works really well.

Apple recently put out an ad promoting its latest iPad Pro. In the spot, a giant hydraulic press slowly descends on creative tools like paint, a piano, notebooks and cameras, crushing them into smithereens. Only the tech giant’s super-thin iPad remains.

The ad is supposed to showcase all the ways the iPad supports and replaces traditional creative tools. But viewers didn’t see it that way.

Apple faced significant backlash and was forced to issue an apology. The company will not run the ad on TV.

You can see what Apple was going for. All that creativity crammed into an ultra-thin device is right in line with one of the company’s most successful promos – the iPod’s “1,000 songs in your pocket” tagline.

Except today’s consumers are a bit more wary of technology companies, AI and the looming impact on creativity.

Samsung Strikes Back

On one hand, the ad is certainly generating buzz and has people talking about iPads more than they have in years. But most agree it’s a rare marketing misfire for Apple.

And its competitors are jumping on the opportunity. Samsung quickly put out an ad titled “Uncrushed” that shows a young musician playing up a partially smashed guitar from Apple’s ad reading music from a Samsung tablet.

To concept, produce and publish that response in that amount of time is impressive on Samsung’s part, and it makes the misguided ad sting just a bit more for Apple.

There’s little doubt Apple should have tested the ad with more audiences before its launch. It was meant to be challenging, but it seems to be challenging the very creators and crazy ones Apple has courted for decades.