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It’s not unusual for Apple to be on the receiving end of criticism, especially when it comes to their products. However, it’s rare to find the company experimenting with “dangerous” ads but that seems to have changed. In a new ad for the iPad, Apple has thrown caution to the wind and stirred up some controversy.
In the 15-seconds ad, seen below, Apple is advertising the usefulness of the iPad Pro and the Apple Pencil in editing photos. The ad starts off with the hand of a woman editing out a man from what seems like her holiday photos. As the ad comes to an end, the words, “perfecting your memories” are captioned.
big fan of apple’s new men are trash campaign pic.twitter.com/WdiWLSfCoD
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— stephen ossola (@stephenossola) February 10, 2020
A lot can be inferred from the video. It’s not unusual for couples to edit each other out of their photos after a breakup but it’s definitely unusual for a company to use this as a campaign approach.
The internet seems to not agree on how they feel about the ad, some don’t like it, some are calling out the men who are offended by the ad as fragile and some don’t really mind it:
Those that didn’t like it
Who thought this was a good idea?
— Carl Donovan (@CarlDono) February 6, 2020
Erasing people from history is a selling point? Really?
— Mary Thomson (@InfraredEyes) February 4, 2020
this doesn't seem right
— Rebecca Roth (@rebroth) February 4, 2020
Those that don’t mind it
Its like, a joke – people have been cutting their ex's out of photos for ages. And, you've been able to do this in photoshop for a while now too. Don't get why people are taking this so seriously haha
— Austin ? (@donut_mutt_) February 10, 2020
It's better than OK…. IMO
— Clinton Brownell (@CCBrownell) February 10, 2020
where's the lie though?
— Eli ? (@cruel_jewels) February 11, 2020
@taylorannbona I can’t stop laughing at the caption
— Samantha Botti (@SamanthaBotti12) February 12, 2020
This just sold me on the iPad
— Meghan Tonjes (@meghantonjes) February 12, 2020
The usual gender fight
All the comments from men ? pic.twitter.com/SupqaYzdJh
— ? (@lilyyzero) February 11, 2020
i’m dying at all the boys getting so hurt by this as if women have never cut out their exes from photos before ??
— kristina (@krissspisss) February 11, 2020
wow just wow, i wonder why not delete the woman instead of the guy?
— M799 Z. (@Mamei799) February 11, 2020
The comment section ? pic.twitter.com/BgisX4gfKc
— deb (@debrowniess) February 11, 2020
now imagine the woman got cut out.. I don’t see people standing up for men yet every feminist votes for “equality” huh
— Jess (@sweetforari) February 12, 2020
Gadgets Africa Take
What side do you lie on? Do you think this was a low blow on men or was Apple just depicting what happens in real life and using that to their advantage?
We are just curious about one thing, who was the target market for this ad and if women were, would anyone actually buy the iPad and/or Apple Pencil just for the possibility of erasing your ex from your photo?
[…] people embrace the act of erasing history by editing exes and toxic friends out of their photos (Apple literally made it a selling point for their product), but baulk at the thought of recreating real memories by adding people into […]