LogIn"The Apple has fallen so very far from the tree."
When Apple unveiled its infamous Crush advertisement for a new iPad Pro model back in early May, the last thing they probably expected was the immense backlash from tens of thousands of individuals, who, surprise-surprise, viewed the imagery of a hydraulic press destroying items often associated with beauty and art as distasteful at best and outright offensive at worst.
Unlike the positive feedback garnered by the old LG commercial, from which Apple seemingly nicked the idea, the Crush ad was instead bombarded with criticism, with droves of artists interpreting it as a symbol of generative AI technology destroying creativity, a theme that is, sadly, all too familiar in today's digital landscape.
As we all know, however, one of the artists' strongest sides has always been the ability to turn emotions, including negative ones, into marvelous works of art, a notion recently reaffirmed by Clay Sculptor Adam Beane, who responded to Apple's ad by squashing its CEO.
Expressing his resentment towards the company and its modern-day approach to advertising, Adam made a highly-detailed clay sculpture of Apple's top dog Tim Cook, only to do what Apple did to all those musical instruments, books, and paint cans – crush it with a hydraulic press.
Moreover, Adam's creative diss went a step further by making a clever reference to the company's iconic 1984 commercial, with the artist himself lamenting the current state of our society, AI's negative impact on creators, and remarking that "the Apple has fallen so very far from the tree."
Adam Beane
Adam Beane
"For the first time in history, humans are losing literal touch with the means of creation and self-expression. We're letting computers simulate for us more and more of the things that make us human –literature, paintings, music, conversation, companionship, even romantic relationships. I think a lot of people are starting to sense that something is being lost, but there seems no fix for it," commented Adam. "The loss is not just the forgotten knowledge and skills, traded for slick programs, but also the tragedy of all the works not being created because artists of all kinds can no longer make a living making art."
Adam Beane
"We're all so busy trying to make ends meet because all the corporations are squeezing us to our breaking point. At the same time, more billionaires are popping up every month. And now AI is being touted as a way to get more done – because we’re all so strung out, we need *someone's* help! But that seems like a deal with the devil to me.
To the people who say '— is just a more advanced tool' I say: when the tool becomes so adept at a job that it can do the whole job itself, it ceases being a tool and becomes a worker. At that point, the 'tool' becomes competition. And it's crushing artists. That's the quiet part that Apple said out loud."
Adam Beane
If you would like to learn more about Adam's Tim Cook Crush project and see more of his outstanding clay sculptures, we highly encourage you to visit the artist's Instagram page by clicking this link.
Previously, Samsung also mocked Apple's Crush ad by portraying a musician approaching a hydraulic press identical to the one in Apple's advertisement, picking up a broken guitar, and proceeding to play a song, using a Samsung tablet as a music sheet "We would never crush creativity" was the slogan the company adopted for this advertisement.
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