Apple’s ‘crush’ ad annoys people across generations – here’s why it didn’t succeed

There’s a fine line between creativity and self-destruction. Apple’s modern Crush ad, in which items associated with original pursuits are crushed to make room for the modern iPad Pro, attempted to find that line, but instead seemingly made a sporadic misstep. furious many people in the process. Apple now has He apologised and stated that it no longer plans to air the ad on television.

Creative destruction is a term coined in the 1940s to describe revolutionizing an economic structure from within—destroying the senior to make room for the modern. Imaginative destruction is a key factor in capitalism, and in Apple’s case, it was previously common in Cannibalization “by designing” products through modern solutions.

Advertising seems to be the answer to criticism about their lack of innovation due to their incremental and iterative approach to product development in recent years. But does their latest offering only reinforce these claims?

To truly innovate, companies must make hard decisions about whether to serve their current customer base with what they already do and are known for, or to change to accommodate the needs and desires of a modern generation. But in doing so, they risk alienating their current customer base.

Imaginative destruction, when done well, takes both customer bases on a journey and seamlessly transitions from one to the other. Apple’s iPad crushing ad illustrates the attempt at original destruction both metaphorically and physically. Trying to be relevant to a younger audience by mirroring last year’s hydraulic crushing tendency on TikTok, Apple unwittingly exploited the generational divide. In doing so, it appears to have alienated both customer bases.

Dripping with nostalgic symbolism, the ad begins with a metronome, indicating that time passes during physical activity. A record player begins to play, humming about time and “being down and all alone,” moving into a wide shot of the tools of “classic” original and recreational activities. It was these objects that were at the center of the commotion, and the actor Hugh Grant describing it as the destruction of the human experience, “courtesy of Silicon Valley.”

The ad moves from analog hobbies like music, painting, graffiti, and sculpture to digital pastimes, showing Pac-Man, Incensed Bird trinkets, and DSLRs—all crushed under the metaphorical pressure of change. Even emoticons, rejected by many juvenile people and thus one of the clearest triggers of generational differences in the digital age, are crushed.

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Here I argue that the ad goes from passive to lively aggression. It leaves both audiences in the metaphorical and actual dust. Then it awkwardly ends with a message that undermines everything that came before, about the iPad being the thinnest version yet. It fails to innovate and instead reflects an iteration of the product. Is thinner and stronger enough when you pit digital natives against analog generations and those stuck in the middle?

Apple’s core customers remember the joy of analog and digital solutions, and Americans baby boom, Generation x AND millennials citing Apple as their favorite brand. Apple came out on top Interbrand Best Global Brands list year after year. However, I have found that the children and grandchildren for whom I buy Apple products feel that the ad is irrelevant and behind the times in a devastating trend.

I showed this ad to a group of Gen Z students who also work full time – the future of Apple target consumer – to gauge their opinion. The initial reaction wasn’t admiration for the technology or innovation. It was contempt for a brand that had made a feeble attempt to replicate a trend, like an uncle at a wedding trying to be there for the kids.

While they agreed that the squashed items would fit inside the iPad Pro, it wasn’t a positive message, with comments about sustainability issues and waste.

Human behavior and perception tend to construct meaning from stimuli due to our context and understanding. Everyone will view an ad through the prism of their experience, and musicians will feel triggered by the metronome and instruments, and artists by the sadness of paint being transferred to spray cans and then completely digitized.

In a time where we need unity more than ever, this ad is divisive and contradicts the song that plays it (All I Ever Need is You by Sonny and Cher).

The ad misses the mark in many ways, and while original destruction is a driver of change and innovation, senior and modern consumers need to be taken on the journey. While the current customer values ​​the brand and is now aware of modern features, the work of building a brand looking to the future falls low.

Is it true to Apple’s brand loyalists? Yes. But if it’s trying to go in a modern direction, signaling change and the passing of what came before, it fails miserably. It’s a lesson to all companies that if they want radical change, they need to make sure they do what they say they will, rather than tinker around the edges. Otherwise, they risk drifting into irrelevance and becoming a nostalgia item, like the things they crush.