Apple 'sorry' for crushing musical instruments and books in 'tone-deaf' advert

Apple has apologised for its new iPad Pro advert where it crushed cameras, books and musical instruments, saying it “missed the mark”.

The advert showed a hydraulic press crushing an array of creative instruments. Pic: Apple via AP

The advert – shared online by Apple chief executive Tim Cook – also featured creative tools such as a record player and a metronome being crushed in an industrial press.

It was intended to show off the wide range of tools that the thinnest ever iPad can be used for.

But the advert came under fire, with actor Hugh Grant saying it showed the “destruction of the human experience. Courtesy of Silicon Valley”.

In a statement, Apple’s vice president of marketing communications Tor Myhren said: “Creativity is in our DNA at Apple, and it’s incredibly important to us to design products that empower creatives all over the world.

“Our goal is to always celebrate the myriad of ways users express themselves and bring their ideas to life through iPad. We missed the mark with this video, and we’re sorry.”

Songwriter Crispin Hunt called the advert “surprisingly tone-deaf” and said Apple “previously enabled and championed creativity”.

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Adam Singer, from 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.

Sales for iPads dropped 17% for January to March compared to the same period a year ago. The tablets currently account for just 6% of the company’s sales.