I expect that by now, everyone has seen the new Apple commercial? For those who haven’t, here you go
Unsurprisingly, this video has attracted a lot of criticism for its content. I for one will NEVER buy into the Apple ecosystem and have always preferred Android devices - for that one reason alone, I’ll never likely be a customer. However, in my view, this advert is in extremely poor taste.
If you watch the advert, you’ll see where I’m going with this. These are creations through generations, and they are being crushed to form an iPad at the end. Without these very creations, and the genius that went accompanied it, our lives would not be what they are today. Technology enriches lives, sure, but it is no match for the feeling and emotion of a human playing a piano or guitar for example. For centuries, masterpieces have been hand crafted on musical instruments by past artists (think of all the great composers before our time that shaped the music we enjoy so much today), and yet, these unique creations are being crushed as though they mean absolutely nothing and can easily be replaced. Even the humble metronome has not escaped.
The same could be said for those amazing analogue cameras, retro arcade machines (that I loved as a child), record players (given that vinyl is enjoying something of a resurgence). And the bust? Don’t get me started on this one. Centuries of beautiful artefacts being destroyed in 1 minute and 8 seconds is beyond comprehension in my view.
What this DOES do very well is create the false view that it’s ok to completely crush important creations, dump all of them in landfill without repurposing or recycling anything and replace what should have been left as analogue with a digital “equivalent”. As everyone with a musical ear knows, vinyl records for example capture exactly the sound the artist wanted you to hear - not a digitally cleaned and “enhanced” track. I recall listening to early albums in mono, and later on in life, their stereo “equivalents”, which never sounded the same and lost their uniqueness.
Sorry Apple, but this video is just plain WRONG. Whoever in your marketing department decided this was a good idea should be immediately fired. I honestly cannot think of a worse way to show complete contempt for all the amazing creations this advert completely destroys in just over one minute.
Bad move, Apple. Bad move. You have just alienated most of your existing user base with this extremely poor judgement. If you have any sense, you’ll pull this ad immediately and re-think your strategy.
Instead of destroying all of the things that today’s technology is based on, why not pay some form of appropriate homage instead?
