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Apple’s 2024 iPad Pro “Crush!” advertisement was meant to show many creative tools coming together in one thin, powerful tablet. Instead, its hydraulic press appeared to destroy musical instruments, paint, books, cameras, sculptures, and other symbols of creative work. A fan-made reverse edit by filmmaker Reza Sixo Safai changed the emotional meaning: creativity seemed to emerge from the iPad rather than disappear into it. Actor Hugh Grant and other creatives criticized Apple’s original, and Apple apologized on May 9, 2024.
What the original iPad Pro “Crush!” ad showed
Released during Apple’s iPad Pro launch on May 7, 2024, the commercial opened on a studio crowded with objects associated with making and enjoying art. A large industrial hydraulic press descended onto them, crushing instruments, paint supplies, books, cameras, sculptures, arcade equipment, and other forms of analog and creative culture.
When the press lifted, the objects were gone and the new iPad Pro was revealed. The product announcement emphasized the tablet’s thin design, tandem-OLED display, and new M4 chip. Apple described the 11-inch model as 5.3 millimeters thick and the 13-inch model as 5.1 millimeters thick in its launch announcement.
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The intended idea was straightforward: one portable device could bring together tools and experiences used for drawing, writing, photography, music, video, gaming, and other creative work. But the commercial did not show those tools being organized, transformed, or used. It showed them being physically destroyed.
Why viewers read it as anti-art
The controversy came from a mismatch between Apple’s intended metaphor and the metaphor viewers actually saw.
Apple appears to have wanted the press to represent compression and consolidation: many creative possibilities reduced to a single, capable device. A hydraulic press, however, is not a neutral visual container. It suggests destruction, industrial force, waste, compression, and erasure. The literal action overwhelmed the more positive product message.
That made the iPad look less like a tool for artists and more like the replacement for the artists’ tools. A piano, guitar, paint, a camera, a book, or a sculpture carries cultural and emotional meaning beyond its function. Crushing those objects before presenting a branded tablet can imply that technology has absorbed—and eliminated—the physical sources of creativity.
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This was an audience interpretation, not evidence that Apple intended to attack artists or replace human creativity. Some viewers understood the commercial’s intended message and did not find it offensive. The backlash was substantial, but it does not establish that every Apple customer or creative professional rejected the ad.
Hugh Grant’s criticism
Actor Hugh Grant criticized the commercial on X, calling it the destruction of the human experience. Courtesy of Silicon Valley.
His wording captured the most severe reading of the spot: that a technology company was presenting the destruction of human, physical, and artistic experience as a product benefit. His comment was reported by The Guardian and The Associated Press.
Other creatives objected for different reasons
Grant was not alone. The reaction included moral criticism of the anti-art imagery, professional frustration about how technology companies treat creative labor, brand criticism, and objections to the commercial’s tone.
- Justine Bateman, a filmmaker and author, questioned why Apple had chosen imagery that appeared to crush the arts.
- Asif Kapadia, a director, producer, and writer, connected the imagery with the way technology companies can exploit or compress creative work.
- Reed Morano, a director, reportedly criticized the commercial as a failure to understand the mood among creative professionals.
- David Heinemeier Hansson, Basecamp’s CTO, said the spot symbolized aspects of digitization that many people dislike.
These comments should not be treated as one unified statement. Some critics objected primarily to the destruction of art objects; others saw a broader contradiction between Silicon Valley’s treatment of creative labor and Apple’s long-standing image as a company that enables individual expression. Contemporary reactions were collected by 9to5Mac, TheWrap, and MacRumors.
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Why AI anxiety made the timing worse
The commercial appeared during heightened concern about generative AI, automation, layoffs in creative industries, and technology’s effect on artists. In that environment, images of a powerful machine pulverizing creative tools could easily be connected to fears that human work was being absorbed, automated, or commoditized.
That context helps explain the reaction, but it does not prove that the ad was about artificial intelligence or that Apple intended an anti-human message. The AI connection was part of the surrounding cultural moment and the audience’s interpretation, not a confirmed advertising objective. Marketing Dive and Forbes discussed that broader context.
The reverse edit changed the meaning
Filmmaker Reza Sixo Safai posted a version of the commercial played backward. In the reverse edit, the objects appeared to return from the iPad and re-form into creative tools and experiences. The footage was not an official Apple revision; it was a fan-made or critic-made edit.
Its appeal came from a simple change in visual direction. The original moved from abundance to destruction and then to a product reveal. The reverse version moved from the iPad toward abundance. Instead of asking viewers to watch creativity disappear, it suggested that creative possibilities could emerge from the device.
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That made the reverse edit more closely match Apple’s stated product idea: the iPad can consolidate many creative workflows in a portable computer. It also changed the emotional trajectory from loss to possibility, without requiring a new product claim or a lengthy explanation. 9to5Mac and Creative Bloq covered the edit and its circulation.
“Better” is still a judgment, not a technical measurement. Reversing footage can create uncanny motion, awkward object behavior, and an altered audio experience. The edit also benefited from hindsight: viewers already knew the controversy and were primed to appreciate a version that solved the original’s most obvious symbolic problem. Even so, it demonstrated that changing the direction of the same images could change the story from destruction to creation.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.The contradiction with Apple’s creative identity
Apple has spent decades presenting its products as instruments for creativity and self-expression. Critics therefore saw “Crush!” as the inverse of that identity. Rather than showing technology helping people make something, it showed technology pulverizing the tools and cultural objects that people use to create.
Some commentary compared the backlash with Apple’s famous 1984 Macintosh campaign, which is commonly remembered as depicting technology as a force that breaks conformity. That comparison is a critical frame, not proof that Apple deliberately contradicted its earlier advertising. The problem was that “Crush!” made the company look like the force imposing uniformity: one industrial machine, one branded slab, and the disappearance of everything around it. The comparison was discussed in reporting from AP News.
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Apple apologized and abandoned planned television use
After the backlash on May 8 and 9, Apple marketing communications executive Tor Myhren apologized. He said creativity was central to Apple and acknowledged that the video had missed the mark.
The apology addressed the commercial’s execution and reception; it was not an admission that the iPad Pro’s product concept or capabilities were defective.
Contemporary reports also said Apple would not run the commercial on television. That is more precise than saying Apple pulled every copy of the ad. The original continued to circulate online through discussion, reposts, and the reverse edit. The apology and television decision were reported by The Guardian and Marketing Dive.
What the controversy actually says about the iPad Pro
The ad’s failure should not be turned into the claim that an iPad literally replaces a piano, paintbrush, camera, book, or sculpture. Apple was demonstrating versatility and consolidation, not proving that every specialized creative tool is equivalent to a tablet.
The 2024 iPad Pro did provide a credible product foundation for the concept: Apple introduced the M4 chip, a new tandem-OLED Ultra Retina XDR display, and support for accessories such as the Apple Pencil Pro. Apps including Logic Pro for iPad and Final Cut Pro for iPad also made the “many tools in one device” argument relevant to music and video workflows. But capability and equivalence are different claims. A portable tablet can complement or replace parts of a workflow without replacing the cultural, tactile, or specialist qualities of every object shown in the commercial.
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Apple’s product message was clear in concept: the iPad Pro could gather many creative capabilities into an unusually thin and powerful device. The execution made another message clearer. A hydraulic press crushing the arts looked like destruction before it looked like empowerment.
The reverse edit was not necessarily a superior commercial in every filmmaking detail, and it was not made by Apple. But rhetorically it explained Apple’s intended message better. It let creativity emerge from the device instead of making viewers watch creative culture disappear into it.
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