"We missed the mark, and we're sorry": Apple apologises for an ad following backlash

Apple has apologised following a backlash on an advertisement created for its new iPad Pro tablet. 

In an Ad Age story, a spokesperson from the iPhone maker said, "Our goal is to always celebrate the myriad of ways users express themselves and bring their ideas to life through iPad. We missed the mark with this video, and we’re sorry.”

The ad depicted an array of creative tools being crushed by an industrial crusher, ranging from a piano to a camera, paints, a guitar, and much more. The ad was intended to showcase the creative possibilities of the new iPad Pro tablet; however, it instead attracted criticism online.

Online critics criticised the new ad as wasteful and disrespectful. Many expressed dismay over Apple's apparent destruction of perfectly good art supplies, while others were offended by how it seemed to devalue traditional methods of creating art, particularly at a time when technologies like AI are increasingly automating tasks such as writing, music, and illustration.

The ad will not run on TV but will be available to view on YouTube, where it has already garnered over 2.5 million views.