Irenes (many)May 8, 2024
Apple SVP of marketing, apparently: so our core message should really be that Apple will destroy all the things you love, and sell you a joyless piece of glass to replace them
Show threadIrenes (many)May 8, 2024

sorry, we know this is low-hanging fruit, just, we can't get it out of our head hours later

the horrible part is we don't think they were trying to horrify viewers!

Show threadIrenes (many)May 8, 2024
it's an ad in which musical instruments, fancy cameras, an arcade cabinet, pottery items, representations of well-loved characters, etc are all crushed by a giant press. very detailed videography of each thing being destroyed.
Show threadRoss AndrewsMay 9, 2024
@ireneista I don't like the symbolism either but I don't think they actually crushed anything. It would be very hard to get that footage with actual stuff and an actual press, and it would be much easier to do so with a computer.
Show threadIrenes (many)May 9, 2024

@randrews we're unconvinced - we do in fact think it's likely to be real videography, even if there was fancy editing to make the press look bigger

but, like

they made it very vivid. they show everything in detail. they clearly intended to produce a strong emotional impact ... well, they succeeded

Show threadRoss AndrewsMay 9, 2024
@ireneista Well sure. And that's part of why I think it was faked. Look at actual hydraulic press videos, things don't splash like those paint cans did, or bend symmetrically like the metronome. The "game over" on the arcade cabinet synced with the thing being crushed? It's hard to predict at exactly what point a cabinet will crush.
Show threadIrenes (many)May 9, 2024
@randrews sure, but we saw some behind-the-scenes stuff recently about people who do food videography with custom robots... they record and play back an entire sequence of movements. they also routinely deal with fluids that need to splash just right, and so on.
Show threadIrenes (many)May 9, 2024
@randrews it's clear how techniques like that could produce this ad, especially since the editing cuts around a lot and makes no pretense of being a single take.
Show threadRoss AndrewsMay 9, 2024

@ireneista Reproducing movements is harder than reproducing at exactly what point a ceramic jar will crack though.

An alternate theory: suppose you were told to do that without just rendering everything. Would you start with an actual trumpet, an actual cookie jar, whatever? Or would you make something that _looks_ like a vintage thingy but actually has strategically-omitted weld joints or slots sawn out or a case made of rubber?

Show threadRoss AndrewsMay 9, 2024
@ireneista *Easier,* not harder. You know what I mean.
Show threadIrenes (many)May 9, 2024
@randrews we would refuse, we don't believe in destroying musical instruments or precision optics (most of the other stuff looks like it was probably just props to us, as you suggest)
Show threadRoss Andrews

@ireneista Again I'm with you in that I hate the message and the ad, I just think it's unlikely any actual vintage or valuable stuff was smooshed.

And that's a lot of what I hate about the message tbh: you're not saying "the iPad can do all this stuff!" you're saying "the iPad is made of a condensed slurry of all these things, after a ride in a Blend-Tec." I don't want the crushed bits of a lens, I want the lens structure, the complexity that's removed by crushing is why I like that gear.

May 9, 2024 at 2:46amWeb