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Comment by SkyPuncher | Hacker News Reader

I don’t really understand the outrage over this stupid ad. It feels like a lot of virtue signaling and faux outrage.

I don’t see it particularly wasteful - especially when you consider all of the other things that go into making _any_ commercial. Are we also outraged that people travel to sets to create Apples other ads? After all, those activities generate waste (but you don’t see it on screen). Is Apple supposed to stop creating ads?

Okay, hydraulic presses are kind of violent, but they’re not inherently destructive devices. They’re an incredibly common manufacturing process. They literally form raw materials into useful components. This feels pretty on point with my interpretation of Apples message - we’ve put all of these great things into an iPad.

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People who are chronically online in one form of another are literally trained/programmed to crave outrage. It's a stimulation like being happy. Why feel nothing when you can feel something?

> Are we also outraged that people travel to sets to create Apples other ads?

Don't try to apply logic. Hivemind wants to hivemind. It is like they are told what to be outraged about. Selective outrage.

Of all the things Star Trek ever explored, a race of logical humanoids has to be the most alien.

I don't think the destruction of a few objects is really a big deal. Personally, this commercial is a metaphor for what big tech companies have done to culture and society in general. They have undermined the diversity of human experiences by creating a sterile product that is economically superior despite lacking soul. In the same way AI will undermine humanity, not by being superior but by being cheaper and 'close enough'.

From the conversation I’m having in another thread it doesn’t seem like the “waste” concept is the main power driving why this ad left a bad taste. Bring up any other example of waste for visuals and all the other wasteful activities are justified “as long as they tell a story” or “create something”. Seems like this video could’ve been art in any other setting and would’ve been ok, but because it’s Apple or because it’s selling a product, it’s bad.

> I don’t really understand the outrage over this stupid ad.

The ad caused people to remember unresolved dissonance they're using media to avoid thinking about in the first place.

An ad that was designed to emotionally manipulate people did so, but in a slightly unintentional direction. In a twisted way the complainers are right. Apple's ad was a failure, because it didn't keep the audience in a docile and uncritical mood. It's just an even more bleak state of the world than my cynicism would throw around as banter.

To consumerism's great relief, the people primed to be introspective for a bit will look elsewhere, and see blunders in messaging from people who don't make advertisement their profession. Things like this blogpost will feed mental pathways that allow sidestepping their dissonance and go back to not thinking too hard about much of anything at all.

Just out of curiosity, do you play an instrument?

I'm wondering if it impacts people with strong emotional bond to art more than others.

I felt it was just super weird and nonsensical.

I did growing up, but haven’t touched it in decades.

I personally just took it as a spoof on the hydraulic press channel.

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