Quick wins for a faster PC:
Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Apple’s “Crush!” ad showed an industrial press flattening paint, instruments, cameras, sculptures, books and other creative objects, then rising to reveal a thin iPad Pro. Apple meant to show how many capabilities one device could bring together. Many viewers instead saw a corporation celebrating the destruction of human creativity—an especially fraught message at a time of anxiety about AI and creative work.
What happens in Apple’s “Crush!” ad?
Released on May 7, 2024, alongside the M4 iPad Pro launch, the roughly one-minute commercial opens on a colorful room filled with creative tools and cultural objects. A hydraulic press descends and crushes or flattens paint cans, musical instruments, cameras, sculptures, toys, books and other items. When it lifts, an iPad Pro is revealed. The voiceover calls it the most powerful and thinnest iPad. Apple’s original commercial makes the visual argument directly: many things go in; one tablet remains.
The ad depicts destruction, but that does not establish that Apple destroyed valuable original instruments, antiques or other specific objects in production. The reaction was about what the scene communicated, not proof of the props’ provenance.
What was Apple trying to say?
The intended metaphor was technological consolidation: one thin device can offer digital tools for drawing, photography, video, music, reading, games and design. Apple was also emphasizing the iPad Pro’s processing power and slim form. That is a claim about bringing capabilities together, not proof that a tablet literally replaces every physical instrument, camera, studio or craft shown.
Recommended Free Tools
#1 Best Overall
- WHY IPAD PRO — iPad Pro with the Apple M5 chip delivers extraordinary performance for effortless productivity on a stunning display. Take on pro workflows with Neural Accelerators for AI and a redesigned iPadOS with game-changing capabilities.*
- PERFORMANCE AND STORAGE — iPad Pro with M5 brings next-generation speed and the power of on-device AI to all your tasks.* Featuring up to 2TB of storage, 16GB of memory, and Neural Accelerators for next-level AI performance.*
- IPADOS — Run pro apps and get more done with iPadOS 26 with Liquid Glass design and game-changing capabilities.* With an intuitive and flexible windowing system, you can control, organize, and manage your workflows like never before.
- APPLE INTELLIGENCE — Apple Intelligence is the personal intelligence system that helps you communicate, express yourself, and get things done effortlessly with groundbreaking privacy protections at every step.*
- 11-INCH ULTRA RETINA XDR DISPLAY — The world’s most advanced display, featuring extreme brightness, precise contrast, ProMotion, P3 wide color, and True Tone.* Nano-texture display glass available in 1TB and 2TB configurations
Apple did not say it wanted to destroy artists or creative work. That was an interpretation viewers drew from the imagery—and, for many, the image overwhelmed the product message.
Why did the ad provoke such a strong reaction?
It made creativity look like the thing being destroyed
The objects were not just obsolete gadgets. Paint, instruments, cameras, books and sculptures are tangible parts of how people make and experience culture. Watching them crushed before a single device appears made the sequence feel less like an invitation to create and more like an erasure of creative practice.
Rank #2
- WHY IPAD PRO — iPad Pro with the Apple M5 chip delivers extraordinary performance for effortless productivity on a stunning display. Take on pro workflows with Neural Accelerators for AI and a redesigned iPadOS with game-changing capabilities.*
- PERFORMANCE AND STORAGE — iPad Pro with M5 brings next-generation speed and the power of on-device AI to all your tasks.* Featuring up to 2TB of storage, 16GB of memory, and Neural Accelerators for next-level AI performance.*
- IPADOS — Run pro apps and get more done with iPadOS 26 with Liquid Glass design and game-changing capabilities.* With an intuitive and flexible windowing system, you can control, organize, and manage your workflows like never before.
- APPLE INTELLIGENCE — Apple Intelligence is the personal intelligence system that helps you communicate, express yourself, and get things done effortlessly with groundbreaking privacy protections at every step.*
- 13-INCH ULTRA RETINA XDR DISPLAY — The world’s most advanced display, featuring extreme brightness, precise contrast, ProMotion, P3 wide color, and True Tone.* Nano-texture display glass available in 1TB and 2TB configurations
The press suggested corporate power, not collaboration
A huge, impersonal machine descending on a room of human-made things is an aggressive image. The replacement is one product controlled by a technology company, so the metaphor could suggest that varied forms of expression are being absorbed into a single digital system.
The timing connected it to anxiety about AI and creative work
The commercial did not mention AI. But in 2024, artists and other creative professionals were already debating whether technology companies use creative work without adequate permission or compensation, automate creative jobs, and treat human-made culture as interchangeable material. The ad’s visual progression—many kinds of human production flattened and replaced by a device—made that connection easy to draw. Axios’s contemporaneous coverage linked the criticism to those existing concerns.
PC Slower Than It Used to Be?
A free scan shows the junk files, broken settings and background clutter dragging Windows down - then fixes them in one click.Free scan · Windows 10 & 11Crashes, No Sound, or Screen Glitches?
Random freezes, missing sound and display glitches usually trace back to one bad driver. Find and replace yours safely.Free scan · under a minuteRank #3
- WHY IPAD PRO — iPad Pro with the Apple M5 chip delivers extraordinary performance for effortless productivity on a stunning display. Take on pro workflows with Neural Accelerators for AI and a redesigned iPadOS with game-changing capabilities.*
- PERFORMANCE AND STORAGE — iPad Pro with M5 brings next-generation speed and the power of on-device AI to all your tasks.* Featuring up to 2TB of storage, 16GB of memory, and Neural Accelerators for next-level AI performance.*
- IPADOS — Run pro apps and get more done with iPadOS 26 with Liquid Glass design and game-changing capabilities.* With an intuitive and flexible windowing system, you can control, organize, and manage your workflows like never before.
- APPLE INTELLIGENCE — Apple Intelligence is the personal intelligence system that helps you communicate, express yourself, and get things done effortlessly with groundbreaking privacy protections at every step.*
- 11-INCH ULTRA RETINA XDR DISPLAY — The world’s most advanced display, featuring extreme brightness, precise contrast, ProMotion, P3 wide color, and True Tone.* Nano-texture display glass available in 1TB and 2TB configurations
The imagery clashed with Apple’s creator-focused identity
Apple has long marketed products to designers, musicians, filmmakers, photographers and other creators. Many critics belonged to that audience. A commercial that seemed to flatten the physical tools of their work therefore landed as callous rather than celebratory.
The spectacle outweighed the product benefit
The ad attached an unusually forceful image of destruction to the benefit of a thinner, more capable tablet. For some viewers, that made the metaphor feel disproportionate: the product message was about convenience, while the image looked like an attack on the things that make creativity human.
Rank #4
- WHY IPAD PRO — iPad Pro with the Apple M5 chip delivers extraordinary performance for effortless productivity on a stunning display. Take on pro workflows with Neural Accelerators for AI and a redesigned iPadOS with game-changing capabilities.*
- PERFORMANCE AND STORAGE — iPad Pro with M5 brings next-generation speed and the power of on-device AI to all your tasks.* Featuring up to 2TB of storage, 16GB of memory, and Neural Accelerators for next-level AI performance.*
- IPADOS — Run pro apps and get more done with iPadOS 26 with Liquid Glass design and game-changing capabilities.* With an intuitive and flexible windowing system, you can control, organize, and manage your workflows like never before.
- APPLE INTELLIGENCE — Apple Intelligence is the personal intelligence system that helps you communicate, express yourself, and get things done effortlessly with groundbreaking privacy protections at every step.*
- 11-INCH ULTRA RETINA XDR DISPLAY — The world’s most advanced display, featuring extreme brightness, precise contrast, ProMotion, P3 wide color, and True Tone.* Nano-texture display glass available in 1TB and 2TB configurations
Who criticized the commercial?
Criticism came from users and prominent creative figures, including Hugh Grant, who called it the “destruction of the human experience,” as well as Justine Bateman, screenwriter Ed Solomon, filmmaker Reed Morano and cartoonist James Kochalka. Tim Cook’s post sharing the spot also drew negative replies. Techmeme’s contemporaneous roundup collects reactions and coverage from several outlets.
That establishes a loud, widespread backlash, not a representative poll or unanimous public verdict. It also does not establish that the ad hurt iPad sales.
What’s actually slowing this PC down?
Pick the symptom - the matching free tool is one click away.
Best Value
- WHY IPAD PRO — iPad Pro with the Apple M5 chip delivers extraordinary performance for effortless productivity on a stunning display. Take on pro workflows with Neural Accelerators for AI and a redesigned iPadOS with game-changing capabilities.*
- PERFORMANCE AND STORAGE — iPad Pro with M5 brings next-generation speed and the power of on-device AI to all your tasks.* Featuring up to 2TB of storage, 16GB of memory, and Neural Accelerators for next-level AI performance.*
- IPADOS — Run pro apps and get more done with iPadOS 26 with Liquid Glass design and game-changing capabilities.* With an intuitive and flexible windowing system, you can control, organize, and manage your workflows like never before.
- APPLE INTELLIGENCE — Apple Intelligence is the personal intelligence system that helps you communicate, express yourself, and get things done effortlessly with groundbreaking privacy protections at every step.*
- 13-INCH ULTRA RETINA XDR DISPLAY — The world’s most advanced display, featuring extreme brightness, precise contrast, ProMotion, P3 wide color, and True Tone.* Nano-texture display glass available in 1TB and 2TB configurations
Was there another way to read the ad?
Yes. The press could be read as a visual shorthand for fitting many creative capabilities into a portable device, and as a riff on the familiar online genre of videos showing objects being pulverized. Some viewers found the execution inventive, funny or technically impressive. The objects can be understood as symbolic inputs rather than victims; whether they were real, replicas or staged does not settle the argument about the symbolism.
That defense explains the concept, but not why it worked emotionally for everyone. An ad can be polished and its metaphor easy to understand while still producing the wrong response. Here, the intended message of possibility competed with a much more immediate image: creative objects disappearing under a press.
What did Apple do after the backlash?
After the criticism, Apple apologized, saying the ad had “missed the mark” and that the company intended to celebrate creativity. The Verge reported the apology on May 9, 2024. It addressed the commercial’s execution and message; it was not an admission that Apple had intended to demean artists. The available reporting supports an apology, not a claim that Apple removed every copy or that the controversy changed sales.
How does the ad relate to the iPad Pro now?
“Crush!” promoted the 2024 M4 iPad Pro. Apple’s current U.S. product page, as of August 2026, promotes an M5 model, so the device in the controversy is not the current generation. The current iPad Pro page lists the 13-inch model at 5.1 mm thick and highlights creative apps, Apple Pencil support and professional workflows. Those product capabilities are separate from the question of whether the ad was well judged.
Quick Recap
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
