Apple's new iPad advert is SLAMMED by critics - and actor Hugh Grant (2024)

As one of the world's most profitable companies, there's no doubt Apple has a lot of money to spend on adverts.

And nowhere is this more apparent than in its latest advert, plugging thenew £1,299 iPad Pro.

The one-minute clip shows a collection of artistic objects – including paints, books and musical instruments – being crushedby an industrial press.

But the 'tasteless' and 'insulting' ad has been widely slammed online, including by English actor Hugh Grant.

TheLove Actually star posted on X (formerly Twitter): 'The destruction of the human experience. Courtesy of Silicon Valley.'

Someone replied to Grant, adding 'And the destruction of childhood', to which the actor replied, 'Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. I could go on.'

In the ad – which was originally posted to X by Apple CEO Tim Cook – the artistic objects are slowly turned to bits by the metal press as 'All I Ever Need is You' by Sonny and Cher plays.

When the press lifts up again, the pulverized remains have vanished and the new iPad Pro appears instead.

It seems the collection of objects is supposed to represent everything that the new iPad is capable of – from sketching art to playing music and displaying documents.

It's also meant to highlight the tablet as the thinnest product Apple has ever made – although, ironically, at5.1mm (0.2 inch), it would be destroyed by the industrial press too.

Unfortunately, artists are considering the suggestion that an Apple product could replace all of their tools as 'insulting'.

One furious X user called it 'an absolutely tone-deaf and insulting ad'.

He said: 'The visual messaging is terrible Like who thought literally CRUSHING THE ARTS AND THEIR TOOLS was the move to make to market this towards creatives?'

Another X user posted: 'With all the Apple tech knowhow, if you really insisted on producing such a tasteless advert, you could have used cgi [computer generated imagery].

'The fact that you chose to destroy things that could have been used by properly talented people speaks volumes about you, your company, and the state of things.'

Another posted: 'Ah, Apple providing the perfect metaphor for what’s happening to the creative arts & humanities, and then mistakenly thinking it’s a good look for an advert.'

Someone else reversed the advert, showing the iPad being crushed and the objects appearing in its place, saying they'd 'fixed it'.

Other users figured that the controversy generated by the advert would simply help Apple sell its products.

Forty years ago, Apple was responsible for what's been described as one of the greatest commercials, called '1984', directed by Ridley Scott.

The ad – plugging the original Apple Macintosh computer – portrays a dystopian setting influenced by George Orwell's famous book where humanity is saved from 'conformity'.

Christopher Slevin, creative director for marketing agency Inkling Culture, said the message of the new ad is effectively the opposite.

'Apple’s new iPad spot is essentially them turning into the thing they said they were out to destroy in the 1984 ad,' he wrote on LinkedIn.

James Bore, tech expert at consultancy Bores Group, said Apple 'completely missed the mark'.

'I think they may have alienated a not-insignificant part of their target market by thinking like technologists rather than creatives,' he told MailOnline.

'It kind of shows how disconnected they are from actual creative efforts.

'There were much better ways to create the same message, without destroying things that their customers will feel sentimental about for a publicity stunt.

'Unless of course they were going deliberately for the controversy sells angle, which I can't rule out entirely.'

It's unclear how much Apple spent on the advert; MailOnline has contacted the tech giant for more information.

Apple unveiled the iPad Pro along with a slightly cheaper iPad Air and an Apple Pencil at an unveiling event on Tuesday.

However, people were left asking 'who still buys iPads', as the line only makes up around 6 per cent of the company's sales.

Aside from its extra-thin profile, the new iPad Pro is fasters due to a new AI-focused M4 chip with a larger 'neural engine' that can complete 38 trillion tasks per second.

The £799 iPad Air is equipped with the less-capable M2 chip, but bothiPads come in two screen sizes – 11 inches and 13 inches.

The Magic Pencil, Apple's £129 ($129) stylus, also gets haptic controls in the form of a 'squeeze function' and the ability to roll the pencil to change brush shapes.