How are you doing? Crush(ing) it! 😳
🍎 As told in eight scenes from Apple’s iPad Pro rage-bait
I’m now weeks late on The Discourse™️ around what will surely go down as one of the most offensive ads in history . . . one that takes a hydraulic press to all that’s good about humanity and the arts, crushing our hopes and creative dreams along the way. Career paths that have already been struggling for air iN tHiS ecONomY.1
I’m talking about Apple’s new iPad Pro debacle—or, yet another wickedly brilliant piece of marketing ragebait, you decide.2
Other Substackers have already written incisive cultural critiques about the ad far more eloquently than I could — here are a few favorites:
- ’s When You Destroy the Tools of Creativity
- ’s Big Tech Broke Its Big Promise
- ’s Apples Also Rot
- ’s Crushing the Creative Impulse
If you haven’t seen it yet, prepare for your stomach to curl for one minute and eight seconds while watching soulless cannibal capitalism demolish a goldmine of beloved creative instruments, to the tune of Sonny and Cher’s “All I Ever Need Is You:”
These images have haunted me for weeks, callously illustrating an all-too-real feeling for so many creatives and small business owners these last few years.
Lately, when someone asks me how I’m doing, flashes of the ad flicker across my mind like a horror movie . . .
Thank goodness for Seth Godin and others who replied to Tim Cook, saying, “Here Apple, we fixed it for you.” Here’s to all of us doing the same.3
❤️
P.S. 🎨 Last reminder! Speaking of reversing the hydraulic press of creative pressure: You are cordially invited to a summer of creative unblocking and intuition-building! I’m facilitating a three-month Artist’s Way pop-up for my community of creative business owners at Free Time.
Come join us! It’s $24 for the summer, with an epic Notion tracking template to support the process. We will begin on Sunday, June 2 in the Substack app chat — I hope to see you there!
Small business optimism just hit an 11-year low, according to a recent National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) survey. From their press release:
The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index decreased by 0.9 of a point in March to 88.5, the lowest level since December 2012. This is the 27th consecutive month below the 50-year average of 98. The net percent of owners raising average selling prices rose seven points from February to a net 28% percent seasonally adjusted.
“Small business optimism has reached the lowest level since 2012 as owners continue to manage numerous economic headwinds,” said NFIB Chief Economist Bill Dunkelberg. “Inflation has once again been reported as the top business problem on Main Street and the labor market has only eased slightly.”
In another dystopian twist, it turns out the ad’s concept isn’t even original! Check out this 2008 LG ad, with thanks to the folks on Xwitter who pointed this out:
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Ah, @Jenny, this piece and the Apple ad is festering in my psyche. As it seems to be with so many other creators and creatives in business. I see it as an accidental confession of how the tech industry and those that author it, squeeze, literally the life out of people and the things that we use to create. I see this as a call to stand on our own convictions and keep creating — making beauty — in our own way, as much as we can, for as long as we can, in all the ways that we can, for as many people and companies as we can.
“Reversing the hydraulic press of creative pressure..” 🙏 That’s exactly what I’m seeking this summer and why the Artist’s Way pop up is so serendipitous!