No, not even Apple can create a ‘viral video’

Hey, digital marketers! It's already 2024. Are your bosses or clients still asking you to make a "viral video"?

I can hear the collective groan. Every digital marketer knows only too well the pain of having to explain that no matter how much time and money the brand invests on the video, no matter how creative and engaging the content is, and no matter how innovative the strategy is and how meticulously it is executed by ticking all the usual digital marketing boxes (e.g. paid, owned, and earned media), nothing will guarantee that it will go viral.

All you can do is to increase the chances of success, working with whatever budget you're given. Which makes you cry, because many bosses or clients have “champagne dreams, beer budget“.

At the end of the day, it's the audience that will decide if your video will go viral.

I mean, look at the backlash against the “Crush” ad of the iPad Pro. Apple is one of the world’s biggest brands, one that definitely has “champagne dreams, champagne budget.”

The video is slickly made, embodying the spirit of the iconic (though ungrammatical) “Think different” advertising slogan that Apple used from 1997 to 2002.

Yet the visceral reaction of the online audience, creatives, celebrities, and others to this “tone-deaf” ad has been so strong that Apple was forced to issue an apology.

In a statement to AdAge (register for free at the AdAge site to access their articles), Apple VP of Marketing Tor Myhren apologised for the video that “missed the mark.”

Apple has pulled out the ad from its TV campaign. But the video is still available online.

The outrage from Hugh Grant and other celebrities shows that the “Crush” ad struck a nerve, but for the wrong reasons.

“‘Just imagine all the things it’ll be used to create,’ Apple CEO Tim Cook posted on X about the new iPad Pro along with the ad. 

“The idea, of course, is that the iPad Pro tablet lets you watch TV shows and movies, listen to and create music, play games, read books, take photos, shoot video and more — in a sleek form factor that is thinner than ever.

”But the ad has been interpreted more as a visual depiction of the tech industry’s devastation of cultural industries. ‘The destruction of the human experience. Courtesy of Silicon Valley,‘ actor Hugh Grant commented on X.

“Filmmaker and actor Justine Bateman, who has served as an adviser to SAG-AFTRA on AI issues, had a similar incredulous reaction: ‘Truly, what is wrong with you?‘ she said in quoting Cook’s post.”

After all, Hollywood has just gone through last year’s writer’s strike and actor’s strike. A walkout triggered in part by fears that AI will replace human writers and actors.

So, no, not even a powerful brand like Apple can create a viral video. Sure, “Crush” been viewed over two million times on YouTube (by the way, comments are turned off for the video).

Meanwhile, the “Crush“ video that Apple CEO Tim Cook posted on The Platform Formerly Known As Twitter has generated 60 million views.

The reactions from users commenting on Cook’s post, however, show that they couldn’t care less how many views the video has.

That’s the thing, though. It’s been a long time since Apple was the Apple we loved. Worse, it seems Apple now doesn’t even understand how people use technology.

“The message many of us received was this: Apple, a trillion-dollar behemoth, will crush everything beautiful and human, everything that’s a pleasure to look at and touch, and all that will be left is a skinny glass and metal slab. 

“Astoundingly, this is meant to sell a product. ’Buy the thing that’s destroying everything you love,‘ says Apple. This is quite a change from the famous ‘1984‘ ad, where Apple styled itself as smashing boring conformity. Sure, the new ad is tone-deaf — after all, Apple rose to prominence by aligning itself with creative types. But it also takes an embarrassingly narrow view of technology. Imagine being such a rube that you believe that the only good technology is new technology.”

To be honest, I had no idea at first about this “Crush” controversy because I stopped watching — or caring about — Apple’s product announcements a long time ago.

Yes, I’m still on MacOS and use an iPhone, because I’ve been in the Apple ecosystem for a long time. Plus, honestly, once you go Mac, it’s hard to go back 😃

I just reconciled myself to the fact that Steve Jobs is dead and his reality distortion field is gone, that Apple was no longer David but Goliath, and that all these things don’t really matter if I still liked using Apple products.

The beauty of living the ordinary life is that you no longer feel the need to constantly upgrade. If the old gadget or technology still works, I don’t need the latest and greatest. I have an iPhone 13, and find no compelling reason to get the latest model.

It’s important to note that not everyone hated the “Crush” ad. The most interesting take I’ve read is from Abram Brown, who included it in The Information’s The Weekend email newsletter.

Brown admitted that as “a small, dumb boy at heart”, he loved “Crush” and his reaction was nothing more profound than “neat”.

So he was surprised to find out he was apparently in the minority. Though of course others out there also thought the ad “crushed” it.

“I think this partly explains how ‘Crush!’ got made in the first place and, ultimately, one of its major flaws. It’s an adman’s ad. And it ran into the same trouble that often befalls a director’s cut and those newspaper and magazine stories clearly authored by journalists writing for other journalists: A broader consumer audience may have a different opinion than industry peers.”

And that indeed is the crux of the problem. An adman’s ad is nothing more than narcissism. Maybe a way for the agency to showcase how creative and innovative it is. Maybe to bag awards for itself and its client.

Forgetting that the real target audience should be your customers. And in hitting this goal, “Crush” indeed missed the mark.

At the end of the day, I doubt this hit to its brand image and reputation is going to bother Apple that much. You already see a lot of articles from journalists, bloggers, and Apple users saying people were just overreacting and overthinking. That Apple shouldn’t have apologised and quickly capitulated. And so on.

Soon, “Crush“ will no longer be part of the news cycle, replaced by another tech controversy that will generate clickbait headlines.

And Apple? Why would it even care, as long as lots of customers buy its latest, thinnest iPad Pro.

That’s the bottomline. Apple is no longer David but Goliath. No longer a rebel but a conformist.

No longer a dreamer but a crusher of dreams.