8mo ago

Apple crushes creativity and its reputation in new iPad ad

www.theregister.com Apple crushes creativity and its reputation in new iPad ad

Someone in marketing may be getting fired for this

The ad itself depicted a mechanical crusher destroying artifacts of human creativity. A trumpet, guitar, sculpture, piano, drawing board, paints, a metronome, several analog cameras, a turntable, and hi-fi equipment were among the much-loved items yielding to the machine's unstoppable force.

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84 comments

Can we just STFU about this mediocre ad already? You’re giving it more airtime and more mental bandwidth. I didn’t think it was worth one day of headlines much less two or three.
- Agreed. People like to get upset over nothing. It’s a stupid commercial that landed poorly. Someone in the marketing department has way too much control and probably didn’t do a very good focus group for this.
  There are plenty of other things about Apple we could be complaining about.
- Ignoring things like this is how we've ended up with an entire generation of people who Apple thinks are either too lazy or too stupid to create art or music on their own.
  Note that I am not calling anyone lazy or stupid, I'm just stating Apple thinks this is a desirable outcome and is pushing forward with that plan
  
  Not everyone has the physical talent, space, and time to learn to play an instrument.
  
  Between working two jobs, never paying off student loans, unobtainable housing, and medical bankruptcy, yeah you're right. Let's just get our dopamine fix and be content with our squalor.
  
  Sounds like a you problem. Don’t piss on everyone else’s parade.
  
  What's "physical talent"?
  
  Having arms to play a guitar.
  
  Just thought I'd drop in to say, it's possible to play it with your feet.
  
  My dude! So good
  
  Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
  it's possible to play it with your feet
  Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
  I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
  
  Clearly they shouldn’t be allowed to have an iPad right?
  
  Clearly some people should donate their opposable thumbs to someone who might be differently abled and actually get the point
  
  Great point. Not a lot of people have time and two arms
  
  Assuming you’re being condescending, some people don’t have the physical capability to plan an instrument. That should stop them from having apps to create music just because a small handful of people who dislike Apple are offended by a commercial that was largely computer generated.
  
  Great counter-point. So we are offended by a commercial AND calling for a ban on differently abled people from using music creation apps! How many differently abled people in your life would love a $1000 iPad designed for an able bodied person? Or would they want something designed with them in mind? Speaking of condescending. "Sounds like a you problem. Don’t piss on everyone else’s parade. "I think a lot of people here are confused and angry at clouds" "I’m sorry your music career didn’t pan out after all that work. Not everyone can be a musician."
  Dis you?
  
  So offended.
  
  *Frantically types genius rebuttal on iPad
  
  There are plenty of other things about Apple we could be complaining about.
  My dude. You are so close to getting the point son. We are on the same page
  
  If you point is that Apple makes great products that enable users to be creative with few limits, but like every corporation there are things to complain about… then yes, we are on the same page, my dude.
  
  *Frantically types genius rebuttal on iPad
  
  So the solution to that is to only make paint-by-numbers music that Apple will allow you to make with their pre approved apps? That sounds like a good way to end up with a lot of mediocre easily digestible music that all sounds the same...
  
  There are plenty of apps that let you do your own thing. Don’t blame the software for musicians being derivative. People have created amazing digital music with significantly less technology. Maybe you just don’t like that people without a formal background (rich people) have the opportunity to make bad (and good) music.
  It sounds like your only problem is that you have to use the App Store. So what app was denied by Apple but is available on Android? Yeah, I didn’t think so.
  
  So right. I saw a DJ playing incredible chiptune off’a two original brick gameboys and two LSDJs and it was absolutely amazing. I wish I had the skill to do that.
  
  Have you heard the music they made from programming floppy drives to read music at different speeds?
  
  I have been playing guitar for nearly 20 years. My family has never been rich, which meant I got the most affordable guitar available (which cost MUCH less than an iPad even accounting for inflation) when I started.
  I knew absolutely nothing about how to play it and taught myself for the first year from stuff I found in magazines. When it became apparent that I wasn't going to just abandon the thing in the closet my parents agreed to get me lessons for this costly sum of $25 a week.
  Since then I have have scrimped and saved to get nicer instruments when I could afford them, and they mean a lot to me so I take care of them and play them often.
  When making music becomes reduced to a game from WHICHEVER app store, it loses all meaning because there is zero invested in it. I'm sure there will be a few people who actually manage to make real music this way despite the limitations, but for most people it will just be a toy they lose interest in like Candy Crush or something.
  If it were easy to play decent music then everyone in the world would have a top 10 hit
  
  Does anyone know an even slighty successful musician who uses a 5 year old iPad? Now, are there any slightly successful musicians that we can think of that use a 5 year old (affordable) guitar? Or a 5 year old computer? How about a cheap drum machine or sequencer? How about giving a kid anything but a $1000 iPad (or a 5 year old paperweight)
  
  I’m sorry your music career didn’t pan out after all that work. Not everyone can be a musician.
  
  Ah, just going straight into troll mode now huh? That's too bad, I was enjoying our conversation...
  
  Not as bad as your album—oh wait you don’t have one. Maybe if you got an iPad you could make that dream come true.
  
  I see the confusion here... You think playing music is something one does to get fame and money. What you're describing is a content creator, in which case I can see why having an overpriced toy that makes songs for you would be appealing.
  For the record I have, in fact, played for a number of audiences and even recorded several albums with various bands that I've been in over the years. I'm sure you wouldn't have heard any of them because they never really made it beyond the local scene. I'm perfectly fine with that though, because I didn't make them to be famous. I made them because I enjoy the creative process involved in songwriting and performance, because I'm a musician.
  
  Aww good for you, my dude. But it’s pretty mean to say that other people, who have music inside them, should be denied. Not all music made using technology is 100% digital anyway. It’s a studio in your home. It allows people who aren’t able to go into a studio, for whatever reason, to produce near-professional music.
  Here’s a thought, if you don’t want to listen to music created using an Apple product, then… don’t.
  I’ll get off your lawn now. 😅
  
  I think somebody here is mixing up performing music and composing it. Which have almost nothing in common.
  I haven't touched Apple stuff for composition (don't even know what it is), but I seriously doubt it's going to take away all the headache of learning music theory.
  And when you do know music theory, you can use plenty of things for digital music. It's just hard.
  
  I think a lot of people here are confused and angry at clouds.
- First I've heard of it and you know, you can just ignore it lol. Yet you took the time to make a comment and... complain about talking about it?
  
  I have to read the headline to ignore it. That puts the ad in my brain, which is what the purpose of the ad is. The post itself is doing advertising despite being negative. I don’t want to think about ads. Fuck em.
- I’m about to block this community for a week or something, then resubscribe.
  I mean I’m kidding, but I’ve seen more shit about this ad that I’ve never seen over the past three days than any actual ads of any type.
- This person's comment is all that anybody needs to know about this situation.
- I did get shown the ad, I thought “huh, it’s not like Apple to do ragebait marketing”. I thought that was just what that is, and that everyone can see that. The “Newphoria” marketing tagline I think was verging on it as well, but I didn’t see anyone moaning about it online. Much harder to avoid for me because it was on giant billboards and shop signs.
  I guess it’s just working as intended if people are recycling it every day into news fodder, not like there’s anything else going on in the world (ongoing genocide? No we have four tweets about Apple’s new ad and boy are these tweets strongly worded!)

84 comments