Apple Apologizes for iPad Ad Amid Backlash: ‘We Missed the Mark’

Apple is sorry for its culture-crushing iPad ad.

The tech giant’s commercial for the new, ultra-thin iPad Pro models caused an uproar after CEO Tim Cook posted it on X, with a caption reading, “Meet the new iPad Pro: the thinnest product we’ve ever created, the most advanced display we’ve ever produced, with the incredible power of the M4 chip. Just imagine all the things it’ll be used to create.”

The “Crush!” ad shows various creative and cultural objects — including a TV, record player, piano, trumpet, guitar, cameras, a typewriter, books, paint cans and tubes, and an arcade game machine — getting demolished in an industrial press. At the end of the spot, the new iPad Pro pops out, shiny and new, with a voiceover that says, “The most powerful iPad is also the thinnest.”

The iPad Pro ad generated fury among many in Hollywood, including Hugh Grant and filmmaker-actor Justine Bateman, who saw it as a vivid illustration of Big Tech laying waste to creative industries. “The destruction of the human experience. Courtesy of Silicon Valley,” Grant had posted on X.

On Thursday, Apple issued an apology for the spot.

“Creativity is in our DNA at Apple, and it’s incredibly important to us to design products that empower creatives all over the world,” Tor Myhren, Apple VP of marketing communications, said in a statement. “Our goal is to always celebrate the myriad of ways users express themselves and bring their ideas to life through iPad. We missed the mark with this video, and we’re sorry.”

As of this writing, the ad remains available on platforms including YouTube and X, including on Cook’s post. However, Apple has now canceled plans to run the spot on TV.

Apple first provided comment to Ad Age about the controversy.