Apple’s ‘Crush’ ad is disgusting

You can generally depend on Apple for clever and well-produced ads, but on this case it missed the mark is the latest, which presents a tower of creative tools and analog items literally squeezed into the shape of an iPad. Many people, including myself, have had a negative and visceral response to this, and we must always discuss why.

This doesn’t just occur because we witness things being destroyed. There are countless video channels dedicated to crushing, burning, exploding and customarily destroying on a regular basis objects. Plus, everyone knows that some of these incidents occur daily at transfer stations and recycling centers. So that is not it.

And it isn’t that these items themselves are so priceless. Sure, a piano is price something. But we see them blowing up in motion movies on a regular basis and we do not feel bad. I like pianos, but that doesn’t suggest we will not do with no few old, unused pianos. Same with the remainder: it’s mostly junk that you could buy on Craigslist for a couple of bucks or on the dump without spending a dime. (Maybe not an assembly station.)

The problem is not with the movie itself, which, considering the individuals who shot and shot it, is actually thoroughly made. The problem is not the media, however the message.

We all understand the supposed point of promoting: you’ll be able to do all of it on an iPad. Great. Of course, we could also do that on the last iPad, but this one is thinner (by the best way, nobody asked for it; now the cases don’t fit on this case) and by some imaginary percentage higher.

But what all of us understand, because unlike Apple’s promoting executives, is that the world we live in is that the things that get fragmented here represent material, tangible, and real. And what is true has value. A worth that Apple clearly believes it may possibly crush into one other black mirror.

This belief is disgusting to me. And apparently for a lot of others as well.

Destruction of the piano within the music video Or MythBusters episode it is actually an act of creation. Even destroying a piano (or monitor, paint can, or drum set) for no reason is wasteful at worst!

But Apple is destroying these items – all you would like is a small device from the corporate that may do all this and more, and doesn’t need annoying things like strings, keys, buttons, brushes or mixing stations.

We are all coping with the results of the mass shift of media towards digital and all the time online technology. In some ways it’s really good! I feel technology has played an enormous role.

But from one other, equally real viewpoint, the digital transformation seems harmful and compelled – a technotopic, billionaire-approved vision of a future during which every child has a man-made intelligence best friend and may learn to play a virtual guitar on a chilly glass screen.

Does your child like music? They don’t need a harp, throw it within the trash. An iPad is enough. Do they like painting? Here’s Apple Pencil, pretty much as good as pens, watercolors, oils! Books? Don’t make us laugh! Destroy them. The paper is worthless, use one other screen. In fact, why not read in Apple Vision Pro, on even faker paper?

Apple seems to forget that it’s things in the actual world – the very things that Apple destroyed – that give value to fake versions of those things in the primary place.

A virtual guitar is not going to replace an actual guitar; it’s like considering that a book can replace the creator.

That doesn’t suggest we will not value each for various reasons. But Apple’s ad sends the message that the long run it wants won’t include paint bottles, knobs to show, sculptures, physical instruments or paper books. Of course, this is the long run he has been working on for us for years, he just didn’t put it so bluntly before.

When someone tells you who they’re, imagine them. Apple is very clear about what it is and what the long run needs to be. If this future doesn’t gross you out, you are welcome.