Apple apologises for iPad Pro 'Crush' ad

Tech giant Apple has apologised for its new 'Crush' advertisement. The advertisement, in promotion of the brand's new iPad Pro, depicted a tower of everyday and analogue items such as paint, a metronome and an arcade machine being crushed by a hydraulic press with slow motion and close-up shots for dramatic effect.

The press then opens to reveal the thinnest iPad it has made and highlights the vast features and capabilities of its new M4 chip.

In an exclusive statement to AdAge, Apple apologised for the 'Crush' ad and said it didn't mean to cause offense among its creative audience. 

Don't miss: Apple crashes with 'Crush' ad for iPad Pro. Creatives explain why 

Tor Myhren, VP of marketing communications at Apple said creativity is in Apple's DNA and that it's incredibly important to the brand to design products that empower creatives all over the world. 

He added that Apple's goal is to always celebrate the myriads of ways users express themselves and bring their ideas to life through iPad. 

Myhren said the ad missed the mark and that's Apple is sorry. 

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out to Apple for more information. 

According to media intelligence firm CARMA, words associated with the Apple’s iPad initially were largely positive with words such as “high”, “valued’ and “features”.

In contrast, after the 'Crush' ad, sentiments about Apple’s iPad dropped to 50.8% positive and 19.7% negative. Words associated with the brand were a mixed bag with words such as “incredible” and “vibrant” being brought up alongside words such as “worried”, “angry” and “bad”.

"Apple used to be the computer for creatives but this ad demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of creative people who are naturally rebellious and not inclined to give themselves over, wholesale, to any corporation," said Neal Moore, founder of Moore's Lore Media.

In following the hydraulic press video trend, Apple had the opportunity to communicate something meaningful to humanity but fell flat, according to Shouvik Prasanna Mukherjee, chief creative officer APAC Golin.

“While I believe the intended message was to show all tools of human creativity compressed in a tablet - the dystopian picturisation made it feel like all of human creativity crushed into a gadget,” he said.

"As a fan I was expecting an emancipating twist in the tale, but instead it felt like a disappointing antithesis to their classic 1984 ad," he said. 

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