Yep. If you really, really want to read it as “Apple is crushing artists because AI will replace them” you can twist an interpretation that kinda fits if you squint. But the much simpler interpretation is “look at all the nifty things this little package can do”.
The only thing that even caused me the slightest bit of unease is the emoji ball getting squashed. I felt a tinge of animism at the scene, like the emojis were living things.
Other than that, I probably would’ve been tone deaf, too, to any offense this might cause.
All of those instruments are made to look awfully pretty. And then you have all the things with faces that are made to look sad. They even make the violin look like it has a face. It’s all art, and it does look pretty.
I’m not saying it’s “fine art,” but it’s not people making fine art who are anxious over AI. It’s people who sell art who are worried, and who this commercial evokes strong feelings. A computer company crushing the symbols of human art resonates with their anxieties.
I mean, I’m not in that position. But if I imagine I am, then I get it. There is that visceral reaction in seeing things that are perfectly good being destroyed. There are all of the faces going out of their way to look sad, with that one thing in the middle actually moving like it’s alive. (It’s some animal that I think is on a screen, btu I’m sure what it is.) They even give the violin a face. And they focus strongly on the destruction.
And, well, it never actually looks like they crushed it into the iPad. They destroy it all, blow out dust, then you see the iPad, without any sign of any of the stuff in it. And why would it be there—it was crushed. It doesn’t work anymore. It was destroyed, not compressed.
If I look at it as me, I get “they’re using a very old meme to look hip. Sucks that those thing ahve ot be crushed. Oh, that’s the point: it’s an iPad commercial. Huh.”
But looking at it as an artist worried about AI, I see the sinister overtones all throughout. Even when I know that’s not the intent. I see it like I would an art piece, with the meaning that is there even if not intended. I see a piece that enjoys destruction in a very stark, industrial setting, where the remains are blown away as dust, and then all that is left is the iPad. And that is very symbolic of AI replacing the things these people love.
I suspect that it takes that artistic mindset to see it. But, of course, these are artists who are reaction. Of course they have that artistic mindset.
And, FYI, I agree with @pulykamell in one part: I would not have predicted this reaction, either. I’m not an ad specialist. But I do get it after the fact.
Eh, iPhones are made to look pretty, too. It’s commercialism more than art in my mind.
I was a fine arts major in college, after a graphic design stint, and used to do a lot of drawing/painting (though I’ve let it go in the intervening years). I don’t think I’m lacking in artistic mindset but I’m obviously lacking in whatever emotional resonance is making people offended by the ad.
Did you have a $995 art scholarship?
Ha! My use of Tippy the Turtle IS in part based on my college days and jokes about having been a fine arts major.
Yes, that’s pretty obvious.
Has Cher caught any backlash from any of this for using her and Sonny’s music as the soundtrack? Anyone making sure everyone knows how personally outraged they are at her for her complicity in this inexcusable atrocity?
If I were back in my advertising days, I would have changed the commercial to be a sort of a Through the Looking Glass screen with all the assorted tools, instruments, works of art, emojis, etc. magically flying into the phone, making the point that the wondrous iPhone doesn’t destroy, it incorporates everything you need.
My IPhone would be the Swiss Army Knife of creativity, not a hydraulic press.
And the Through the Looking Glass approach makes sense if incorporation is your goal, but it doesn’t really address how thin this new iPad is. That’s what Apple wants everyone to know. I think the bulk of iPad commercials are already about how it’s a Swiss Army Knife of creativity. So you’d need to also convey that it’s the Thinnest Apple Product Ever™.
All right, here’s what happened. I hear that Apple is this cutting-edge company producing all kinds of amazing devices no one can do without. I go to the store a few times; it’s a very warm, friendly, vibrant environment. I find out that their primary lines are the iPhone and iPad. I decide that the phone’s screen is too small for my liking and get the latter. It costs me a little over $800. Then the iPad Pro comes out with a bigger screen and a stylus, which I like because I don’t always like rubbing my finger across the screen. It costs me a little over $1,000. Then after just a few months the Pro gets a swollen battery. Take it back. Sales rep asks tough questions. Takes about a week to replace it and I’m out another $600. I don’t see how I’m at fault but nonetheless resolve to take much better care of this one. After less than four months the screen it goes completely dead for absolutely no reason. Take it back. No one can figure out what went wrong, but they can’t replace it. Now just have the original iPad…which gets a swollen battery and becomes all but useless about a year and a half after I bought it.
Later get a $100 Fire tablet as a present; don’t recall when, but it was well before the pandemic. Has never given me any problems and works perfectly to this day.
So yeah, I’d say I have some justification in being upset. 
(I do have an iPhone now…family package, no effort or expenditure on my part…and it works fine. Helps me out a lot with doctor’s appointments, in fact. Still no desire to ever look at another iPad.)
This was at an Apple Store?
So, completely on-brand for them still…
There is this figure of speech called ‘irony’.
Can we just drop this now, please?
That one was controversial in its day, too. No one had ever seen anything like it. I’m glad it has survived all this time.
The 1984 ad got pulled, too.
It was shown during a Superbowl, and was supposed to be shown again in the second half. But “enraged” Apple board members called and got it, well, smooshed.
I saw a special on the making of it (weird to see Ridley Scott shooting a commercial) and they said that though it only ran once, it’s been aired hundreds of times since.
But, yeah, Apple’s always been willing to step on people’s sensibilities…
I’m with @Babale on this. I just watched the ad and thought it was interesting. The things that I noticed that got crushed were things you can “put in” to an iPad to “take with you.” Video games. Piano. Metronome. Paint. Stress ball. Guitar. DJ equipment.
And it all plays off the trend of the hydraulic press videos which are wildly popular online.
Every ad I see on Reddit is basically made to look like some popular type of content (meme, Twitch stream, TikTok video), because it’s supposed to make you think it’s just another Reddit post while you’re scrolling through. This didn’t seem any further off from that, other than the slick production. I assume ads on all of the other social media platform are similar.
I liked it. Didn’t feel one ounce of outrage. Even if they smooshed a Kermit doll I wouldn’t feel outrage. I’d think “Awww Kermit…but they’re right, I can watch all the Kermit I want on my iPad these days.”
In my view, anything that makes Apple tight in the collar is very entertaining. LOL
The whole crushing thing was nothing but “Apple Ego”. It said to me, “Even the most treasured aspects of your society is now under the jackboots of Apple!”
Yeah! Like Angry Birds! Or emojis!
When you’re dredging up Mac Vs Windows stuff from 30 years ago or whenever in a thread about an iPad commercial, then yeah, I have to say I think your burning resentment is closer to genuine than ironic.