Apple apologized and pulled its iPad Pro 'Crush!' ad after creatives revolted

On May 7, 2024, Tim Cook tweeted Apple's new iPad Pro spot 'Crush!': a great slab of hydraulic press slowly flattens a piano, trumpets, books, retro gaming tech, vinyl records and cameras until only the company's thinnest-ever iPad remains. Cook's caption: 'Meet the new iPad Pro. Just imagine all the things it'll be used to create.'

Replies under the tweet lit up with criticism. The arts community read the ad as celebrating the annihilation of creative tools at exactly the moment generative AI was stoking fears about creative livelihoods, and Apple was repeatedly called tone-deaf. Actor Hugh Grant reposted it as 'The destruction of the human experience. Courtesy of Silicon Valley'; filmmaker Justine Bateman asked why Apple made an ad that 'crushes the arts'. Some users also noted the concept closely resembled an LG ad from 2009.

On May 9 Apple apologized via a statement to Ad Age from Tor Myhren, its vice president of marketing communications: 'We missed the mark with this video, and we're sorry.' Ad Age reported the company no longer planned to run the commercial on TV. The stumble came as Apple was trying to revive iPad sales, which had plunged 17% year over year in the January–March period and now contribute just 6% of Apple's revenue.

Apology on May 9 and the planned TV run cancelled; no financial figure disclosed.

The ad's premise — new tech annihilating creative tools — collided with artists' generative-AI anxieties in 2024.

The backlash attached itself to the CEO's own account, making the apology immediate and unavoidable.

Critics also flagged the concept as unoriginal, pointing to a similar 2009 LG ad, compounding the embarrassment.

An ad about replacing everything creatives use lands differently in the year generative AI made them fear replacement — read the room before you crush it.

The TV run was cancelled and the apology stood: 'Creativity is in our DNA at Apple,' Myhren told Ad Age, 'our goal is to always celebrate the myriad of ways users express themselves.' The ad remained a reference point for how not to speak to creative professionals.