Apple’s ad for its latest iPad Pro has sparked outrage, with Hugh Grant saying it represents the “destruction of the human experience”.
The ad promoting the thinnest ever iPad features creative tools including cameras, books, paint cans and musical instruments being crushed in an industrial press.
Once an arcade game machine, old-model TV, record player, metronome and array of other symbols of creativity have been reduced to smithereens between two slabs of metal, the top of the machine is raised to reveal the new iPad.
All of this is set to the tune of Sonny & Cher’s 1972 single All I Ever Need Is You.
“Meet the new iPad Pro… Just imagine all the things it’ll be used to create,” Apple CEO Tim Cook wrote on X, along with the ad video.
The replies were quickly flooded with people decrying the crushing of artistic objects.
Hugh Grant retweeted the post, adding: “The destruction of the human experience. Courtesy of Silicon Valley.”
“The symbolism of indiscriminately crushing beautiful creative tools is an interesting choice,” one X user said.
Another added: “I can’t relate to this video at all. It lacks any respect for creative equipment and mocks the creators.”
Adam Singer, vice president at advertising technology company AdQuick, called it the “(unintentional) perfect metaphor for today’s creative dark age”.
“Compress organic instruments, joyful/imperfect machines, tangible art, our entire physical reality into a soulless, postmodern, read-only device a multi-trillion dollar corporation controls what you do with,” he wrote on X.
Apple did not immediately respond to Sky News’ request for comment about the backlash to the ad.
The new iPads, released on Tuesday, feature a new Apple chip and a new display in addition to being Apple’s thinnest products.