Yahoo Finance Hugh Grant accuses Apple of destroying human experience with iPad advert
Hugh Grant has accused Apple of “the destruction of the human experience” amid a backlash after the tech giant crushed musical instruments and art in an iPad advert.
The minute-long advert for the tech giant’s new iPad Pro shows pianos, guitars and sculptures being squashed by an industrial press, in a reference to the thinness of the new models and the array of tasks artists can supposedly accomplish with the device.
However, when Apple chief Tim Cook posted the ad on the social network X, it was besieged by thousands of negative responses. Mr Grant wrote: “The destruction of the human experience. Courtesy of Silicon Valley.”
Apple apologised for the advert late on Thursday, saying it had “missed the mark”.
Authors, designers, artists and musicians were among those who criticised the Silicon Valley company.
Critics contrasted the new advert to Apple’s celebrated 1984 advert based on the George Orwell book of the same name, in which the company presented itself as a rebellious antidote to a status quo represented by its then-rival IBM.
One user, James Clark, said that the advert from 40 years ago represented a “monochrome, conformist, industrial world exploded by colourful, vibrant human”, while the new advert represented humanity being crushed.
Christopher Slevin, the creative director of marketing agency Inkling Culture, wrote on LinkedIn: “Apple’s new iPad spot is essentially them turning into the thing they said they were out to destroy in the 1984 ad.”
Paul Graham, the founder of the Silicon Valley startup incubator Y Combinator, said that Mr Cook’s predecessor, Steve Jobs, “wouldn’t have shipped that ad. It would have pained him too much to watch.”
Several users reversed the video so it played backwards, showing instruments, books, video games consoles and artwork rebounding to life, generating positive responses.
The video comes at a sensitive time for creative professionals’ relationship with the tech industry. Record labels and authors have sued tech companies for using their output to train artificial intelligence systems, which they say is a copyright violation.
Apple has not released an AI chatbot like ChatGPT, but is expected to feature so-called generative AI features in the next version of its iPhone software.
The new advert was intended to promote the latest iPad Pro the company unveiled on Monday, at a time when the company is seeking to boost flagging sales. iPad revenues fell by 17pc in the most recent quarter.
Apple told AdAge: “Our goal is to always celebrate the myriad of ways users express themselves ... We missed the mark with this video, and we’re sorry.”
