Update: Apple Apologizes for iPad Spot That Stirred Controversy

UPDATE 5/9: For the past two days, the interwebs have crackled with controversy over Apple’s latest iPad intro, which showed a huge industrial machine destroying materials that humans use to create art and commerce.

In our age of AI and layoffs, this approach hit a nerve. 

Per AdAge, Apple marcom VP Tor Myhren issued an apology: “Creativity is in our DNA at Apple, and it’s incredibly important to us to design products that empower creatives all over the world. Our goal is to always celebrate the myriad ways users express themselves and bring their ideas to life through iPad. We missed the mark with this video, and we’re sorry.” 

The spot appeared online, but now it won’t run on TV.

Muse executive director Charell Star weighed in with an insightful take.

Obviously, Apple doesn’t literally want to smash creativity; that would wreck its business model. Still, bashers have a point, as we all sometimes fear that algorithms and bots are coming to steal our jobs and reshape life beyond recognition.

MUSE POST FROM 5/7:

We could say that Apple’s Reality Pro intro totally crushes it—but we’re trying to think different these days.

At 5.1mm, the new iPad ranks as the tech titan’s thinnest product ever. That said, a lot of other stuff gets flattened in this hydraulic-press video from Apple’s creative team and Iconoclast directors Vania & Muggia:

All of those items—musical instruments, cans of paint and tech tools among them—represent Reality Pro functionality (referencing sonic apps, art programs and such). Even the rubber emojis fit the bill. (Plus, they just deserve to get squashed.)

Sonny & Cher’s hippie-era “All I Ever Need Is You” provides a twangy soundtrack.

Meanwhile, a second spot, from TBWAMedia Arts Lab and BeGrizzlee director Fernando Cardenas, pits the new iPad against a vintage iPod Nano.

The music player was once Apple’s thinnest offering, but these days it looks a tad plush at 5.4mm: