Apple's controversial ad is so hated that Xiaomi just copied it

Apple has its fair share of critics (and, yes, haters) but on May 7, 2024, things got out of hand. The Cupertino giant managed to alienate a whole mass of people with a single ad. Now, the same ad is being sort of copied by Xiaomi.

What happened?

Even people from the Apple cult were murmuring: "Hey, that's too much!" on May 7, when in honor of the iPad Pro M4 unveiling, the following ad was put on display:

The critics said Apple went too far. By destructing these musical instruments, old-school arcade-style video games, record players, and other items, critics argued, Apple was sending a "wrong" and "distasteful" message of the new "replacing" the old.

It's 2024 and, give or take, everybody is kind of worried about the possibility of Skynet (that's a Terminator reference – Skynet is an artificial neural network-based conscious group mind and artificial general superintelligence system that wants humanity gone) taking over.

That's why, to a point, I understand all those who say that the above ad is not very clever.

After all, nobody wants to be replaced by AI. Also, (presumably) nobody wants to see the things that made us laugh, think and feel good, get crushed in the name of a modern gadget.

In defense of Apple (I can't believe I'm saying this)

I'm not the biggest Apple fan out there. Not even close.

In fact, I'm not a "big fan" of any phone maker out there. I think each and every one of the brands has its fair share of shortcomings and issues. As Treebeard (an Ent, a.k.a. a walking and talking tree-giant character) from The Lord of the Rings puts it: