miskApple apologizes for iPad “Crush” ad that “missed the mark”
𝒍𝒆𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒏Originally I watched the ad and couldn’t see what was wrong with it (from the perspective of a relatively isolated software developer).
However the top comment on the Verge summed it up in a way I understood, making comparisons to the crushing of various creative devices in the ad (instruments, cameras, paints etc) and the current creative landscape in reality (game studios, music production etc).
With that in mind, the timing is pretty poor IMO and feels quite insensitive to creative individuals
It boils down to this: the ad was a visually detailed and drawn out destruction of things some people like. These are physical objects that people genuinely have emotional attachments to. So it’s musicians and photographers who probably had the strongest visceral response: the type of people who kept obsolete devices past their obsolescence because that was the physical artifact of the thing they learned their craft on.
I know software developers who would’ve had the same visceral reaction to a Commodore 64 or Apple II or NES being slowly destroyed. Or even other gadgets that people loved, from a Walkman to an iPod to a Tamagotchi to original iPhone.
It’s not like the scene from Office Space where there’s visceral disgust for the thing being destroyed, but precisely the opposite emotions involved.