Too bad Apple’s PR and marketing departments don’t understand social media like you do. They could have saved their apology and cranked up the TV ads!
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I don’t think they really are sorry though. Bad press is good press and this will be forgotten in a week. But in all honesty, at least from what I see, no one really is talking about this unless you are deep into Apple fanboy pundits (Daring Fireball) or you follow certain people on Twitter.
The Verge is always desperate to post as many Apple related stories as they can because it gets the clicks of course.
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Umm…
I mean in communities, the users. The press is going to jump on this for the clicks. I read a forum that has nothing to do with Apple. The subject came up and they moved on to talking about the new iPads. Reddit has threads, and a few people “care” but most are pretty indifferent.
IMO Apple shouldn’t have apologized. It was a fantastic ad and showcased both the functionality and thinness of the new iPads incredible well.
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The idea that musicians are upset about this is hilarious. Every time I watch something music related on YouTube, a PC (usually a Mac) is heavily used. Often, it’s 100% digital.
Heck, for that matter, the same with film makers. Maybe the problem with the ad was it hit too close to home?
I am sure no musical instrument was harmed in the making of this commercial.
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YouTube an old Who, Led Zeppelin or many other 70 rock band concert. Talk about smashing instruments. Wow
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An ad exists only for marketing purposes, and if it alienates and offends a significant part of its target audience, it’s not a good ad, regardless of whether or not it’s clever or or well produced.
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To them, the instruments represent the music, which is what they care about. Computing devices are just gadgets they find useful for production.
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Did it have any negative effects on sales? Not that we will ever know, but I am guessing no. Those same people upset are still going to buy Macs and iPads because those tools are good at it.
People on Twitter who are upset just want the attention. This is all tied in with the AI thing, they feel threatened so now they are going to take every opportunity to let us know.
Much of the uproar I have heard stems from the destruction of these objects. The theme was “Crush” and that didn’t go over well. They also killed Pixar Luxo and a poor emoji… they might as well had a few kittens in there.
I personally think the original idea was to crush previous generations of iPad, in order to make it even thinner. A theme of “Squeeze” would probably have gone over better, given that we saw an animation of how all these tools of creation magically got squeezed into the device without being harmed or destroyed.
Also, I don’t think analog tools are inherently better. I am able to create stuff digitally that I never could in the physical space.
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“It didn’t hurt sales” isn’t enough to make it a good ad. Better questions to ask would be “Did it increase sales?” and “Did it leave positive impressions about the company and its products?”
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Speaking of crushing cute things, this ad is far more disturbing. Courtesy of Daring Fireball.
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Apple make their ads in-house, by the way.
That “what’s a computer ad” was widely panned, too, for equally spurious reasons.
I find it hard to believe that anyone was unable to understand the intention of the ad, even if they found it unpleasant. There’s no reasonable argument that the reaction isn’t overblown and hyperbolic.
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How do you or the click bait media define “significant”?
Actually, I don’t find this one nearly as disturbing. It’s self-consciously humorous in a sick joke way, they’re just cartoon characters, and it doesn’t take itself seriously like the iPad ad does.
It’s enough people that it’s drumming up negative press for Apple and distracting attention away from the positive qualities of the new products they just launched, so I’d say it’s clearly a failure as a ad.
Would any ad have generated this controversy? If not, it’s not just manufactured clickbait.
You find the destruction of CGI inanimate objects more disturbing than cartoon characters. Ok. Sure. This has reached the silly point.
It’s the imagery and symbolism not the technology that was used to create them. Yes, I’m more disturbed by images of the creative arts and culture being destroyed in a serious tone. Cartoon characters have been crushed, killed, chopped up, and flattened for laughs since at least the days of Road Runner and Coyote.
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