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Missing from this extremely short and underreported article is how badly this played out in Japanese market. The culture they have states that musical instrumen
by edkennedy 2y ago
Missing from this extremely short and underreported article is how badly this played out in Japanese market. The culture they have states that musical instruments, creative tools have some energy and imbued sense of spirit to them. So destroying these elements of culture is really really blunt and gauche to them. The majority of the push back came from Japanese people, and then artists empathizing with their sentiment.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- superb_dev 2y agoGiven that context, it’s nuts that this ad was approved for the Japanese market
- smugma 2y agoI’ve seen a few comments about this. Is there any English page that documents this in more detail? I find it really interesting.
- Apocryphon 2y agoReally interesting to consider that this might be one of the few incidents that Shintoists, or at least "cultural Shintoists," have gotten offended at a western production. Makes me wonder if this is why Apple went out of their way to apologize for the ad. I think if this ad just had non-culturally-specific backlash, they would've simply moved on. But because this impacted a specific market's sensibilities, maybe they felt the need to do a public mea culpa.
- xattt 2y agoThis is a market where shame and apologies still have significance.
- adrian_b 2y agoI have seen recently a documentary about Japanese food, and an interesting fact was that the chefs at some big Japanese restaurant had a special decorated grave, in some nice yard, in which they deposited their old kitchen knives, when those were so worn out that they could no longer be used. They felt that it would be disrespectful to just dump somewhere the main tools of their work, after they had used those every day for decades.
- stuartjohnson12 2y agoThis is a beautiful sentiment.
- novaRom 2y agoI have asked chatGPT to write a hokku: In garden's silent nook, Beneath cherry's tranquil look, Blades retire from the cook.
- p1nkpineapple 2y agoOut of curiosity, what was the doco?
- adrian_b 2y agoIt was from 2015: "Wa-shoku Dream: Beyond Sushi". ("wa-shoku" means "Japanese food") https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3846402/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_wa%2520shoku https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3846402/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8...
- smsm42 2y agoI think a lot of people are a little bit Shintoist. That's one of the reasons why we have museums - we regard things as some kind of reflection on people and events, and a chair in which a famous person sat or an instrument they played is different for us than otherwise identical object that doesn't bear that imprint. We may not literally believe in things having spirits, but for many the things have some qualities that go beyond their physical structure. Emotional value, etc.
- brundolf 2y agoI'm not Japanese and it was upsetting to me Not because eg one piano got destroyed; surely that happens all the time, even on camera for eg movies and such. But there was something about watching beautiful objects be destroyed, in slow motion, gratuitously, and with an upbeat/sunny tone, that just aesthetically made me squirm in my seat
- shmageggy 2y agoIt goes beyond aesthetics for me. It's like they took everyone's deepest fears about technology and AI, that it will replace or "crush" authentic human experience and creativity, and they just embraced and celebrate it by literally crushing representations of human creativity. At least I'm glad the corporate types were actually honest about their goals, though, instead of their typical doublespeak
- HenryBemis 2y agoExactly that. They predicted/showed us the future that is coming. They said/showed the quiet part loud.
- dogman144 2y agoThis was what I understood it to be as well, they let it split out by accident/enough group think. I’ve worked in tech long enough to firmly believe this sentiment exists.
- leptons 2y agoAgreed, that's exactly how tech companies are, and Apple is one of the biggest. Apple doesn't really care what people create, so long as they are buying an Apple product to create it on. It doesn't matter that an iPad doesn't feel or sound like a trumpet. If someone buys their product to learn to play a trumpet or a piano, then they were the fool parting with their money that Apple was hoping to find, and there's a lot of them apparently.
- lubesGordi 2y agoIts such a testament to how indoctrinated and homogeneous that environment is.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- RicoElectrico 2y ago[flagged]
- doublerabbit 2y agoHave some compassion. Let me take something of your prize possession and crush it for an iPad. Not all can afford one and such items brings them entertainment. For some advert to advertise, "your a schmuck for having these, buy an ipad" is just out of order.
- RicoElectrico 2y agoWho would take this ad literally? As in "go toss the piano in trash and buy an iPad Pro"?
- wiseowise 2y agoIt’s more like “your cool thing is uncool, but our soulless machine”.
- doublerabbit 2y agoI'm sure many. Many who are gullible to adverts as if folk weren't there wouldn't be advertising. It's not that they will go and do so. But more the symbolism of "you don't need any of these ever again because you can do it on this!" While okay; sure but again those who can't afford an iPad, were instruments are of an important value to see them destroyed is heart breaking.
- mrguyorama 2y ago"How dare you react to the text, you were only supposed to read the sub-text"
- falsaberN1 2y agoI'm honestly shocked. This is not okay, specially when the parent post is not even praising that country in any exaggerated way, just stating a fact. There are no acceptable targets when it comes to culture.
- numpad0 2y agoAbsolutely no offense - I don't see what this has to do with Japan at all although this has been repeated everywhere. I think this is just an unfortunate natural intuition. Japanese users normally aren't exposed to the rest of WWW at all, even on social media, so there's intuition that any notable interactions observed has to do with the four-seasons and egg sandwiches way. But it's also true that there are 0.35x as many of the people here as there are US Americans, or 1.5x more than Germans, which creates a lot of presence in itself, possibly even grossly exaggerated on Twitter due to cultural fit and ongoing collapse of its en-US bubbles. I think this instance is example of the latter being the case mistaken as the former.
- okdood64 2y agoJapan’s iPhone marketshare is one of the largest. You can bet a lot of folks cared to watch it.
- blhack 2y agoWas there a similar backlash to this identical ad from LG in 2009? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcUAQ2i5Tfo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcUAQ2i5Tfo
- type0 2y agoApple ads team should apologize to LG for stealing their ad
- fortran77 2y agoApple steals _everything_ and never apologizes. https://www.theregister.com/2012/10/12/apple_licenses_swiss_clock/ https://www.theregister.com/2012/10/12/apple_licenses_swiss_...
- pornel 2y agoThe popular sentiment has changed from enthusiasm about "digital", to disillusionment about big tech inserting themselves into our lives to monetize everything. In 2009, smartphones were a novelty, and the iPad has not been announced yet. People were wowed by the new capabilities that "multimedia" devices were enabling. They were getting rid of the old, outdated, less capable tools. Nowadays "multimedia" is taken for granted. OTOH generative AI is turning creative arts into commoditized digital sludge. Apple acts like they own and have the right to control everything that is digital. In this world, the analog instruments are a symbol of the last remnants of true human skill, and the physical world that hasn't been taken over by the big tech yet. And Apple is forcefully and destructively smushing it all into AI-chip-powered you-owe-us-30%-for-existing disneyland distopia.
- albert_e 2y agoI guess earlier people must have assumed it is not really possible to replace all those instruments and tools with a small phone. So the ad was probably punching up in a way back then. Today there is a real recognition of how pervasive digital devices and AI tech is becoming. With all the might and influence Apple and tech companies now have - this ad might have evoked a sense of punching down.
- _zoltan_ 2y agoDo you know if it aired in Japan as an ad? If not, then I am not sure what you're talking about.
- rideontime 2y agoIt aired on the Internet, which is available in Japan. You can see some examples of backlash from Japanese people in the replies to this tweet, if you have a twitter account. https://twitter.com/tim_cook/status/1787864325258162239 https://twitter.com/tim_cook/status/1787864325258162239
- nomel 2y agoI see several people stating they're ashamed to owning an iPad, and will never buy one again. Is this a form of hyperbole to push a message, or is there really this much emotion?
- Tao3300 2y agoThe skepticism is strange to me. I think the ad is actually compelling enough that it's making some of us really examine the question of whether or not the iPad really can (or should) replace these things. Apple is making a bold statement, so strong reactions are expected. I've known for a while now that I'm more creative with a 2H pencil and a sketchbook than I am on my iPad. I'm more creative noodling around on real strings than in an app. This has made me pause to consider whether I should ever again plug in my currently uncharged iPad.
- nomel 2y ago> really examine the question of whether or not the iPad really can (or should) replace these things. > This has made me pause to consider whether I should ever again plug in my currently uncharged iPad. I can't comprehend this. It's not an either or scenario, and I don't believe destruction/replacement was the intended message of the commercial. These things can be (somewhat) emulated with the iPad (are inside it). You can use an iPad for those, while riding on the bus, eating lunch, whatever, or when creativity does strike you. But, I don't think any reasonable person is thinking an iPad is a parity replacement for piano or a physical paint brush, or will use it to replace those. It's a tool, available when someone wants to use it. I have trouble believing this much, and fairly profound, introspection is only happening because of a silly commercial showing things being compressed into an iPad. I think it must be something else/indirect/unrelated, possibly something to do with identity. But, I suppose this is evidence that these emotions are real, which is fascinating to me, seeing the iPad as a small form factor computing device/useful tool. I'll just say that I have a piano at home that exists, and I can happily use, regardless of the charge state of my iPad. I can go between them, without issues. But, I will say, the objective limitations/irreproducibility of compositions that come with using musical notation is much better handled with sequencers (which can then be used to produce the under-expressed notation).
- michaelcampbell 2y ago> The majority of the push back came from Japanese people, Cite?