Apple recently announced its new iPad Pro line-up, powered by its new M4 chip and sporting the company's first groundbreaking OLED display, which pushed the technology's brightness to new heights. It's also the thinnest device in the company's history, with the 13-inch variant featuring a thickness of just 5.1mm - incredible.
And it seems that the display and thickness drove the inspiration and message behind Apple's latest ad for the new iPad Pro. "Meet the new iPad Pro," Apple CEO Tim Cook wrote in a social media post debuting the ad. "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."
However, to try to sell the device's thin profile and creative capabilities, whoever Apple put in charge of the ad decided that it would be a good idea to take a treasure trove of iconic art-driven technology and gear from history and put them in one of those flattening machines, completely destroying them.
The negative backlash was immediate. No one found it fun to watch some of the most beautiful musical instruments, gear, and retro creative hardware and tools destroyed to sell a tablet. The new iPad Pro is an impressive and groundbreaking tablet - but still, a tablet.
The ad offended most Japanese people due to its careless destruction of valuable tools. In the hours following its debut, many people from around the world expressed their disappointment. Even celebrities chimed in, with actor Hugh Grant calling it "The destruction of the human experience courtesy of Silicon Valley." Basically, it is the opposite of the company's iconic 1984 ad for the Macintosh.
With that, Apple has publicly apologized for its iPad Pro commercial and added that it won't air on any TV network or other forum as originally planned.
"Creativity is in our DNA at Apple, and it's incredibly important to us to design products that empower creatives all over the world," Apple VP of Marketing Communications Tor Myhren told the Ad Age outlet. "Our goal is to always celebrate the myriad of ways users express themselves and bring their ideas to life through iPad. We missed the mark with this video, and we're sorry."
- Read more: The M4 iPad Pro has a new OLED display with a variable refresh rate, but no always-on display
- Read more: Apple's new iPad Pros feature dual OLED displays and are the company's thinnest devices ever
- Read more: Apple announces new M4 chip built with 3-nanometer technology powering new iPad Pro
- Read more: Buying a maxed-out M4 iPad Pro? You'll need to spend almost Apple Vision Pro money to do it



