Apple's "Crush" — The Wrong Message
Getting your message right is hard. Even experienced companies can mess up like Apple demonstrated recently with their ad “Crush!”.
It features a giant press that crushes a display of objects related to art such as musical instruments, a bookshelf containing books, a sculpture, paint, games and even a desk light that looks like Pixar’s Luxo Jr. The only object that survives this ordeal is the new iPad Pro. The voice-over announces it as stronger and thinner than anything before.
This is probably the message they wanted to send. But many people, among them artists and the creative community who make up a significant part of Apple’s audience, received a different message that translated more or less to “fuck you”. Since then, Apple apologised for the ad, saying it missed the mark.
But what was the problem, how could it have been avoided and what can we learn from it?
The Problem?
At first glance, the problem was that a lot of people got the wrong message. What they associated with Apple’s message was something ranging from a cringy feeling to shock and disgust. I’m sure that’s not what Apple wanted. But it’s not the people’s fault. It’s Apple’s.
Ever insulted someone and said “but this is not what I meant”? That’s exactly it (and it doesn’t help that you did not mean it, the pain was felt and thus was real). It’s a human right and reality to feel a certain way based on the input we get. Different people have different experiences. What may be insulting to some may be neutral to others and vice versa. The reaction to this feeling is a different matter I’m not going to address here, but the feeling is valid. This is part of what makes communication hard.
So the problem was that Apple sent a message that was insulting to many people and in many different ways. Why?
The Issues
While there are artists who are not emotionally attached to their tools and this is not an ad destroying specific property, some people, including non-artists, just don’t like beauty being destroyed. Not even the idea of it.
And some people are emotionally attached to their tools and to similar tools out there. Why not? Musical instruments are sometimes described as having a soul. When we create music we forget the world around us, creating our own space of refuge and freedom filled with deep emotion. Books do the same. Arcade games hold treasured memories of childhood, friendship and fun. Is it surprising that the destruction of objects associated with such memories and feelings is disturbing?
Emotions are literally being played with and crushed in this ad, symbolized by a range of smileys. One of them almost escapes the press. But apparently, there’s no escape from this destruction. Probably all Apple wanted was to make the metaphor of “eyes popping out of one’s head” more literal. It just became gross.
What about the paint? The paint jars in itself were not beautiful. Spilling them actually created a moment of beauty. But in the end nothing of the paint remains. A grey press stands in the middle of a barren factory; the only colorful things are the ones that got destroyed, leaving the iPad alone in a distopian, grey world. If that is all that’s left of the world in anyone’s imagination, no thank you.
And it gets worse. If you consider how art tends to get destroyed – in the Nazi’s book burnings for example – the act or symbolism of destroying art is closely tight to extreme cruelty, war and the most digusting people and crimes in history.
All of this would be more than enough but there is one last problem that hits a lot of people hard. Since AIs have entered the consumer market with powerful models like ChatGPT and DALL-E, many artists are worried or already struggling to earn their living in a profession that has always been ruthless and lately got worse. Hinting at destroying art and replacing it with a computer in times when artists already feel threatened by AI is a punch in the gut.
Fixing the Issues
We won’t be able to fix the societal issues that easily, but at least we can fix the message that stirred them. Let’s first look at the obvious:
If Apple’s message is that their product is strong and thin, they could have used a different setting to showcase it. For example, use the iPad instead of a crowbar to open the door to a secret stash of art.
But is it possible to fix the press?
Tweak the Message
When I first watched the video, I expected it to end with a huge iPad created from all the objects that were, after all, not destroyed, but squeezed into an iPad. It would have been a different message. A message that Apple’s products are created from art. But they would have lost the opportunity to claim that the iPad was stronger and thinner than any before, because there would not have been enough context to explain why this was the message of the video. Also, it would not have solved the issue of the AI threat to artists.
Change the Plot
So what if Apple wanted to keep both the press and the message? Then they could have changed the plot.
For example, they could have put the iPad on top of the objects, saving them with the iPad’s supposed strength. Of course, they would have had to include something more dramatic than simply stopping the press. Maybe crushing parts of the objects. Maybe adding a second one that crushes something less valuable. Or introducing some last-moment action to save the art.
Or they could have crushed some boring stuff like office furniture instead of art. They already have a dystopian setting. Why not add unhappy factory workers that decide to crush their tools to end their misery? Someone could have accidentally tossed their iPad in. Once they notice, it’s too late to save it, but, magically, it survives. And once the press moves up, the iPad’s screen starts to shine, covering the crushed tools around it with light, recreating something from them … can that horrible stuff not be destroyed? No, it is not the furniture and the tools that appear. Instead, tools of art and beauty are created from the material. And once the people in the factory have rubbed their eyes and realised what has happened they gladly take the blessing, spreading the objects across the factory, bringing color, music and fun into a grey world.
That would have been a beautiful message.
Get Feedback and Re-Iterate
The problem with messages is that even when you think you are sending a clear message, a completely different one may be received. We all have different backgrounds, different associations, different feelings. The only way to check your message is to ask your target audience for feedback and adapt your communication. Over and over and over again, until you get it right. Not only but especially when you are doing something provocative like including destruction. Using something with such negative associations in a positive way is always tricky. Someone might even be affronted by office furniture being destroyed. Unless there are actors we can relate to who show us why, in this case, destroying something creates something more valuable: freedom. And through that: the chance to create art.
Photos by Ayla Blaise on Unsplash and Isaac Martin on Unsplash.