Dystopia, thy name is Apple.
Or at least, that seemed to be the motivating principle behind the company’s deeply unsettling new ad.
As initially shared by Apple CEO Tim Cook on the social media platform X, the ad for the new iPad Pro has been generating much well-deserved backlash all across X.
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. pic.twitter.com/6PeGXNoKgG
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) May 7, 2024
The offending ad began innocently enough.
In the center of what appeared to be an empty metal room stood a variety of musical and artistic equipment, including a metronome, a piano, and a record player, as well as paints and alarm clocks.
However, as the ad continued, it became clear that all these materials had actually been placed into a giant hydraulic press.
That press descended towards this disparate collection of materials, first crushing a trumpet, then the arcade cabinet the trumpet was perched upon, crushing all these materials into one homogeneous glop.
Do you own multiple Apple products?
And the imagery only grew all the more disturbing, with the apparatus shown crushing angry birds paraphernalia, TVs showing children’s programs, and smiley face plushies.
Then after everything was crushed together, creating a rainbow with all the paints, the press opened back up, showing the new iPad Pro in the place of everything that was once there.
Finally, the ad came to its merciful close, with a narrator proclaiming, “The most powerful iPad ever is also the thinnest. The new iPad Pro.”
Obviously, this ad generated a whole host of criticisms for a variety of reasons.
Byron York, political correspondent for the Washington Examiner, simply stated that the ad was “really horrible … horrifying, actually.”
This is a really horrible ad. Horrifying, actually. https://t.co/BJuPvALNn5
— Byron York (@ByronYork) May 8, 2024
Gaming website Kotaku noted that Apple was clearly piggy-backing off viral TikTok videos of things getting crushed in a hydraulic press, but the sheer amount of materials destroyed in the ad sparked outcries about the massive waste on display.
But, more so than the waste, people were much more disturbed by the underlying philosophical implications of the ad.
This ad was disturbing mostly because it seemed to suggest that every element of human existence can, should, and will be distilled down into a tiny device with a screen.
Which is, fundamentally, a repugnant idea that must be resisted as much as possible.
As user Judd Barroff wrote, “I’m not sure ‘wanton destruction of all the good and beautiful things is this world’ was really the vibe you were trying for,” while user Jash Dohlani bemoaned how the ad implied that “A silicon slab (and Tim Cook) will permanently stand between u and the world.”
I’m not sure ‘wanton destruction of all the good and beautiful things is this world’ was really the vibe you were trying for.
— Judd Baroff (@JuddBaroff) May 7, 2024
Everything beautiful, charming, and analog will be destroyed by a flat black screen
You must never see a sculpted bust
Never hear music from an actual instrument
Never feel the texture of real things
A silicon slab (and Tim Cook) will permanently stand between u and the world
— Jash Dholani (@oldbooksguy) May 8, 2024
And, though user Sterling Crispin said in the comments that he was mostly joking, his joke probably best encapsulated the disturbing trans-humanism undergirding the whole ad.
Crushing symbols of human creativity and cultural achievements to appeal to pro creators, nice.
Maybe for the next Apple Watch Pro you should crush sports equipment, show a robot running faster than a man, then turn to the camera and say, “God is dead and we have killed him”
— Sterling Crispin 🕊️ (@sterlingcrispin) May 7, 2024
In Crispin’s words “Maybe for the next Apple Watch Pro you should crush sports equipment, show a robot running faster than a man, then turn to the camera and say, ‘God is dead and we have killed him.’”
Now, again, Crispin was speaking in a tongue-in-cheek, hyperbolic fashion, but he was on to something.
Technology, of course, is not evil in itself.
Technology is a tool, and, like any tool, it can be used for purposes good and evil.
However, turning literally every aspect of the human experience into something digital would be a sinister purpose indeed.
God created humans as soul and body for a reason — God desired us to interact with his creation, not solely through an artificial intermediary, not solely through our intellect, but also through our physical senses.
Playing an instrument, painting, listening to a record, sculpting, or any other endeavor wantonly destroyed in this ad could not and cannot be replicated on an iPad, no matter what Apple wants us to think.
That Apple might want to help create a world where physical mediums and tools become obsolete and every experience is mediated through a digital interface is a frightening thought.
What is a Utopian dream for the liberal elites is a dystopian nightmare for everyone else.
