Latest Ad Controversy in Tech
Apple recently released a new advertisement promoting their latest 2024 iPad Pro, titled "Crush", and it sparked quite a discussion online.
The core concept of the advertisement leverages on the trending theme on social media of using a massive hydraulic press to crush seemingly random objects.
So what Apple did was take a bunch of creative works, and their tools associated with it, from sculptures, to musical instruments and had them all neatly piled up on a massive hydraulic press. The press comes down, flattening it all, with dramatic cinematography highlighting their destruction. And when it finally comes back up, we see an iPad Pro sitting in the centre, alluding that all that analog creative tools have now been compressed into a single piece of tech.
While the messaging is strong, is there really a need to sacrifice so many art tools in the process? Many an artist grew up using those physical instruments. Watching them getting crushed just feels wrong, and probably tone-deaf (pun intended) on the part of the creative direction.
Given how the market is learning that they can easily vote with their wallets, or with review bombs (cough Helldivers 2 and Sony PSN fiasco cough), I wonder if Apple's loyal, art-loving, customers would stand up strongly against it. And if so, how would Apple respond?
Other Ads going too far in Tech and Games
This isn't the first time that "bad" advertising in the tech space has made the news. "Bad" advertising, to be specific, fake advertising in games, have also been a point of contention for quite some time now.
We all have had that experience, where we see an ad pop up while we are playing a mobile game, or watching a YouTube video. And the ad shows a particular game, with a seemingly interesting gameplay. Some intrigued individuals may click on it, head to the app store and download it.
Only to realise that it is an entirely different game from what they expected when viewing the advertisement earlier.
This form of advertising is obviously "false marketing", as what was being shown and what the game actually is, is entirely different. Many vocal gamers have gone so far as to create Reddit threads of games that utilise such ads and actively boycott them.
Yet, despite the angry gamers' best efforts, games that employ such fake advertising strategies are still constantly in the top charts of app stores constantly. So, while it pains me to say it, these fake ads do work.
Until there's a precedence of companies getting heavily fined for making such ethically-questionable ads to promote their game, fake ads will be here to stay.
What do you think of this new trend of ads in the tech space? From fake advertising to those that simply follow trends blindly, are ads in tech going too far? Or should ads continue to go "too far" to capture their audience?
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