Technology company Apple has apologised for its iPad Pro advert, which shows creative tools being crushed in a hydraulic press, following a backlash from creatives.
"We missed the mark with this video, and we're sorry," Apple's vice president of marketing Tor Myhren told advertising industry publication Ad Age.
"Creativity is in our DNA at Apple"
The advert, which is still live on Apple's YouTube page and in an X post from Apple CEO Tim Cook, shows tools used by creatives – including instruments, desks, games and paint – being crushed. When the press retracts, an iPad is shown.
The video was intended to show all the ways the iPad can be used. However, it was broadly criticised by creatives on social media, who believed that it showed how technology can replace human creatives.
"Crushing the symbols of human creativity to produce a homogenized branded slab is pretty much where the tech industry is at in 2024," novelist Hari Kunzru wrote on X.
"The message you're sending is that traditional creative tools are obsolete – and by extension, so are those who use them," added Emmy-nominated photojournalist Tyler Stone.
In response to people calling Apple "out of touch", the technology brand said its aim was to empower creatives.
"Creativity is in our DNA at Apple, and it's incredibly important to us to design products that empower creatives all over the world," continued Myhren.
"Our goal is to always celebrate the myriad of ways users express themselves and bring their ideas to life through iPad."
"Thinnest Apple product ever"
Released to mark the launch of the latest iPad Pro, the advert appears to be a play on Harvard Innovation Lab's Evolution of the Desk video, which shows how numerous office items have been replaced by an Apple laptop between 1981 to 2014.
According to the brand, the recently unveiled iPad Pro is the "thinnest Apple product ever", with the larger version being 5.1 millimetres thick with a 13-inch screen. It also has the "world's most advanced display", according to Apple.
In another launch earlier this year, Apple unveiled its Vision Pro mixed-reality headset. The wearable device allows users to project visual applications in a 3D environment controlled by eye and hand movements.