One thing that infuriates me is seeing people plagiarize creative ideas and claim them as their own, a frustration that dates back to my days in advertising school.
However, it’s particularly disheartening when Apple, a company renowned for its claims of leading innovation and exceptional marketing, engages in such behavior.
It’s even more egregious when they take an idea from a competitor, brand it as their own, and then produce a commercial that not only fails to impress but also reflects poorly due to the inherent flaws of the idea itself.
In this article, I will expose the source from which Apple blatantly copied, and discuss the significant backlash that the commercial provoked.
A bad idea
Numerous international sites have already commented on the controversy stirred up by the new iPad Pro commercial on social media.
If you haven’t seen it yet, the 30-second video shows various musical and artistic instruments being ruthlessly destroyed to morph into the ultra-thin iPad. Check it out:
The idea on its surface, that the iPad can replace various things in one single device, isn’t new, but the way the commercial was executed ended up offending some.
It received negative feedback because when you watch the video and see pianos, trumpets, art sculptures, guitars, professional cameras, and other “human” objects being destroyed in front of you just to sell a product, it’s genuinely shocking.
“Oh, this is all just whining from people with nothing better to do.”
No, it’s not whining when what we see goes against what Apple has always stood for. For those who have followed the brand for years, it’s like they’re selling their soul.
It’s a far cry from the “intersection of technology and liberal arts” that Steve Jobs preached, and I find it hard to believe that he himself would approve of such a commercial if he were still in charge.
But as I said at the beginning of the text, things get even worse when we know that this commercial is practically a copy of another one made back in 2008.
Apple copycat?
Yes, now you’ll see a commercial with the same guitar being smashed, the same camera lenses bursting, and even paints to add some color.
Is it the same commercial or isn’t it?
It was made by LG in the UK back in 2008, when all phone brands were scrambling to catch up with the revolution that the iPhone had brought to the industry.
And the funny thing is, the narration style is visibly copied from Apple of that time. Still, the concept of the commercial was original.
Either Apple was deceived by the advertising agency, which in its creative process decided to resort to “creative references“, or the apple is really suffering from creative scarcity even in its commercials…
