<story><title>Apple apologizes for iPad &apos;Crush&apos; ad that &apos;missed the mark&apos;</title><url>https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/9/24153113/apple-ipad-ad-crushing-apology</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>maxrobeyns</author><text>My initial reaction to the ad, upon watching it in the launch event was &amp;quot;huh, that&amp;#x27;s a fun reference to the Hydraulic Press Channel&amp;quot;. The slapstick elements (trumpet noise, squishy balls) made it come across as light-hearted, rather than an ominous display of force by a large company crushing artists&amp;#x27; tools.&lt;p&gt;This idea of &amp;#x27;squashing all these tools down to a thin slab of glass&amp;#x27; made sense given their somewhat unusual focus on the thinness of the device. It was a bit of a throwback to the early 2010s smartphone innovation, where the size of the devices was the yardstick by which manufacturers would outdo each other. I would charitably interpret it as an uninspired marketing team trying to spin some version of Jobs&amp;#x27; classic &amp;quot;the iPhone is simultaneously an iPod, phone and internet device&amp;quot; - however the party trick is old, and nobody&amp;#x27;s impressed anymore.&lt;p&gt;Perhaps the blowback is a sign of a wider weariness that people have accumulated towards big tech companies over the past few years, mixed with a nebulous malaise about &amp;#x27;AI&amp;#x27; and what it means for the status quo and people&amp;#x27;s livelihoods.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>kenjackson</author><text>This outrage feels so manufactured. I&amp;#x27;m a huge basketball fan, coach, ex-player. If they included a basketball in the ad my thought would&amp;#x27;ve been &amp;quot;yeah, you can play NBA2k on it&amp;quot;. I&amp;#x27;m not mad about the destruction of a single basketball. I don&amp;#x27;t feel like its disrespect to the game. It&amp;#x27;s showing that this single device has captured elements of basketball into a small form factor.&lt;p&gt;As you note this may hint at a larger weariness with big tech -- and I tend to agree. I feel like if it was a public library crushing a bunch of things, and then ends with it lifting up and showing a library card there wouldn&amp;#x27;t be the same concerns.</text></comment>
<story><title>Apple apologizes for iPad &apos;Crush&apos; ad that &apos;missed the mark&apos;</title><url>https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/9/24153113/apple-ipad-ad-crushing-apology</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>maxrobeyns</author><text>My initial reaction to the ad, upon watching it in the launch event was &amp;quot;huh, that&amp;#x27;s a fun reference to the Hydraulic Press Channel&amp;quot;. The slapstick elements (trumpet noise, squishy balls) made it come across as light-hearted, rather than an ominous display of force by a large company crushing artists&amp;#x27; tools.&lt;p&gt;This idea of &amp;#x27;squashing all these tools down to a thin slab of glass&amp;#x27; made sense given their somewhat unusual focus on the thinness of the device. It was a bit of a throwback to the early 2010s smartphone innovation, where the size of the devices was the yardstick by which manufacturers would outdo each other. I would charitably interpret it as an uninspired marketing team trying to spin some version of Jobs&amp;#x27; classic &amp;quot;the iPhone is simultaneously an iPod, phone and internet device&amp;quot; - however the party trick is old, and nobody&amp;#x27;s impressed anymore.&lt;p&gt;Perhaps the blowback is a sign of a wider weariness that people have accumulated towards big tech companies over the past few years, mixed with a nebulous malaise about &amp;#x27;AI&amp;#x27; and what it means for the status quo and people&amp;#x27;s livelihoods.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>some_random</author><text>I think the big thing here is that if you don&amp;#x27;t have an attachment to any of the items being crushed you probably don&amp;#x27;t feel as strongly. If you&amp;#x27;re a trumpet player, seeing a trumpet being crushed is going to be a bit distressing. If you&amp;#x27;re a photographer, you&amp;#x27;re putting a monetary value on those lenses being destroyed. If you&amp;#x27;re into old arcade machines, you&amp;#x27;re thinking about how many of those cabinets are left in that good of a condition.</text></comment>