The backlash to Apple’s “Crush” video advert selling the brand new iPad Pro was swift and fierce. On X, the platform previously often called Twitter, customers did not maintain again. Economist Yanis Varoufakis wrote partly, “Tim Cook has just revealed his techno-feudal urge to crush everything of cultural value in his quest for power. It is time for humanity to reprimand him.” Meanwhile, celebrated creator Sterling Holywhitemountain referred to as the advert “a paragon of the ugliness / psychopathy / anti art sentiment behind a certain kind of thinking in tech,” and tech journalist Paris Marx remarked, “Like Miyazaki said of AI, Apple’s new iPad Pro ad is ‘an insult to life itself.'”

The backlash did not keep contained to X, as many revered publications ran articles railing towards the perceived assault on creativity implied by Apple’s iPad business. “Apple’s ‘Crush’ ad is disgusting,” learn TechCrunch‘s headline, whereas The Atlantic requested, “What was the company thinking?”

While the advert stays up on each YouTube and Tim Cook’s X profile in all its can’t-look-away horror, Apple now plans to not air the spot on TV, in accordance with Ad Age. It’s a disgrace that this weird unhealthy business is forcing Apple to shift its focus away from the product it is supposed to advertise because the new iPad Pro spec sheet does appear to be a exceptional piece of {hardware}. But this iPad advert controversy ought to ship a message to the tech trade: simply since you’re innovating one thing new does not imply it’s best to disparage older gadgets many individuals nonetheless maintain expensive.