Apple released an ad for their new iPad Pro, which shows a crap ton of musical instruments, artists materials, analog audio components and more, all being crushed in a huge … crusher. The ad is being widely criticized as completely missing the mark when it comes to appealing to creatives. I felt put off on first viewing, and I get why others do as well.

Seeing tangible, real-world objects being destroyed like this doesn't make me feel that Apple has any connection to either their core creative audience, or the wider world of Apple product users in general. I guess the message was meant to be "you can do all this with an iPad," but it feels more like they are saying "we will destroy everything you love so that you have no choice except to buy our stuff." It's surprisingly tone deaf, and couldn't come at a worse time - when people across the US are protesting, celebrities are paying $75,000 to go to the Met Gala, then being eviscerated online for being completely out of touch, and when there is a general feeling of impending apocalyptic doom. I suspect we'll see an entirely new, completely different ad coming very soon, that will try to wipe away the bad taste left by this one. Or Tim Cook will just sit back and watch the money trucks back up the to his house, while we argue online among ourselves about what it and isn't proper.

If I had to figure out a way to make this concept palatable, I would run the ad in reverse. End with an iPad that reconstructed all those things, instead of destroying them. Tie the iPad to tangible, analog pieces that people feel sentimental about, and make it look like the iPad is not trying to dominate, but instead place value on those things that bring us happiness.