Bad Apple
The uproar over the tech giant's ad for its latest iPad may be over the top, but it speaks to uneasiness about the AI revolution.
People have strong feelings about Apple. That lesson was drilled into me five years ago while reporting on the iPhone 11’s launch.
To create some ballyhoo around the big day, employees at Sydney’s flagship Apple Store lined up to applaud the first customer in Australia to buy the new iPhone. I took a video and put it on Twitter, as it was called back then. Goofy for sure, but just a bit of fun.
By the end of the day it had been shared thousands of times, had about a million views and even topped Reddit. Hundreds of people commented — and they were mad. My mentions were filled with angry and deeply resentful comments about “late stage capitalism”, and about how heartbreaking it was that people cared more about a new phone than they did about the climate crisis, inequality or whatever their particular anxiety was.
I was reminded of this today as Apple’s ad for its new iPad Pro went viral for the wrong reasons. It depicts an industrial press crushing a collection of instruments, tools and toys, leaving in their place a new slim iPad Pro. Ominous possibly, but just a bit of fun.
