After the new iPad ad caused widespread roast, Apple made a rare public apology on May 9 local time, and said it would not be shown on TV as planned.
On May 7th, Apple released an advertisement for an iPad Pro called "Crush!". In the advertisement, a huge and heavy hydraulic press crushes people's beloved items including books, trumpet, paint bucket, guitar, piano, phonograph, statue, drum stand, as well as cameras, arcade games, displays, plastic dolls, etc. into pieces, and then launches Apple's thinnest product in history, the iPad Pro 2024.
Visually, this advertisement is extremely impactful.
▲ Source: Apple advertisement screenshot
Although the creativity of this advertisement is not difficult to understand: Apple has pushed a massive amount of functions into this thin and powerful tablet, which can be used for professional artistic creations such as drawing, arranging, and photo editing.
But the problem is that as a consumer electronics product aimed at professional users, this advertisement crushes all these creators into pieces. This kind of abnormal negative emotion ultimately went from the angry condemnation of a small group of professionals to a public opinion storm, which is unprecedented for Apple's marketing activities.
This advertisement is currently still on Apple CEO Tim Cook's X account and has been viewed over 53 million times on social media.
▲ Cook posted the advertisement on X Source: Media
In the comment section of the advertisement, netizens expressed, "This is a heartbreaking, uncomfortable, and selfish advertisement", "This is indeed the most creepy advertisement I have ever seen", "This makes me want to sell my iPhone and iPad"
Some people believe that with the rapid development of AI technology and the possibility of regulatory agencies splitting the Apple App Store, such advertising is detrimental to Apple's image.
On May 9th, Apple's Vice President of Marketing and Communications, Thor Myren, issued a statement acknowledging that the advertisement did not achieve the "expected effect" and apologizing for it. He emphasized that creativity is Apple's gene, and Apple has always been committed to inspiring creativity among global creative professionals through its products. Their goal has always been to encourage users to express themselves in diversity and turn their ideas into reality through the iPad, but this video did not achieve this goal.
Advertising industry executives believe that this advertisement represents a huge mistake by Apple. During the tenure of the late co-founder Steve Jobs, the company was praised for attracting consumer attention through advertising.
The consumer insight platform Zappi conducted research on this advertisement. The platform claims that advertisements perform lower than the benchmark in commonly popular emotions such as pleasure and laughter, but higher than the benchmark in traditional negative emotions such as shock and confusion, and older consumers are more likely to have negative reactions than younger consumers.
Apple's financial report released on the 2nd showed that in the second quarter of the 2024 fiscal year (as of March 30, 2024), the company's operating revenue was $90.75 billion, a year-on-year decrease of about 4.3%; Net income was $23.64 billion, a year-on-year decrease of approximately 2.2%.
According to the financial report, Apple's smartphone sales decreased by approximately 10.5% from $51.33 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal year to $45.96 billion; The sales of wearable, household and accessory products decreased from $8.76 billion to $7.91 billion.
From the sales market perspective, Apple's revenue in Greater China, the Americas, Japan, and other Asia Pacific regions decreased year-on-year in the current quarter. Among them, revenue in Greater China decreased from $17.81 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal year to $16.37 billion, revenue in the Americas decreased from $37.78 billion to $37.27 billion, revenue in Japan decreased from $7.18 billion to $6.26 billion, and revenue in other Asia Pacific regions decreased from $8.12 billion to $6.72 billion.
As of the close on May 9th local time, Apple was trading at $184.57, up 1%, with a market value of $2.8 trillion.
