Apples Controversial Crush Ad Sparks Outcry A Reflection on Innovation or Destruction

The Ad, titled “Crush!” showed an industrial press crushing several things including musical instruments along with books.

The video showed the press crushing a record player, a piano, a guitar, an old TV set, cameras, a typewriter, books, paint cans and tubes, and a classic arcade game machine into the new iPad Pro.

Sharing the video on his X, formerly Twitter, account, Apple CEO Tim Cook wrote, “Meet the new iPad Pro: the thinnest product we’ve ever created, the most advanced display we’ve ever produced, with the incredible power of the M4 chip. Just imagine all the things it’ll be used to create.”

The Ad, however, did not sit well with Hollywood as actor Hugh Grant called it the destruction of human experience.

The destruction of the human experience. Courtesy of Silicon Valley,” Hugh Grant commented on X.

Filmmaker Justine Bateman had a similar reaction: “Truly, what is wrong with you?” she wrote while quoting Cook’s post.

Another director Asif Kapadia inquired about the person who believed that making such an Ad was a good idea.

“It is the most honest metaphor for what tech companies do to the arts, to artists musicians, creators, writers, filmmakers: squeeze them, use them, not pay well, take everything then say it’s all created by them,” he added.

Filmmaker Reza Sixo Safai shared a version of the iPad Pro ad running in reverse, commenting, “Hey @Apple, I fixed it for you.”