A new Apple ad is sparking backlash from viewers who say it hits the wrong note

An ad for Apple’s new iPad Pro shows a piano, turntables, cans of paint and other tools of creative expression crushed in a giant hydraulic press. Some viewers say it sends a dispiriting message.

When an ad goes viral, it’s usually for one of two reasons — it resonates so deeply with viewers that they can’t stop talking about it … or it makes people so upset they rush to social media to voice their outrage. An Apple ad for its new iPad Pro seems to fall into the latter category. Posted on social media Tuesday by Apple CEO Tim Cook, the ad starts off as a sort of time capsule for human creativity. There’s a metronome. A record player. Then the lights come on in a warehouse-like room, where you see those items and dozens of other creative tools sitting on a metal slab in the center of the shot. There’s also a CRT TV, cans of paint, a globe of the Earth, a piano, an ‘80s arcade video game, a sculptural bust of a human head and a trumpet. Another giant metal slab hangs ominously above it all. As we hear the opening words of “All I Ever Need Is You,” a 1972 single by Sonny & Cher, the metal slab starts descending. The items are in a giant hydraulic press, and within about 40 seconds everything will be gone — crushed under tons of force in an often dramatic fashion. After the destruction, the hydraulic press starts rising again. The debris is now gone. In its place is a shiny, new iPad Pro. A voiceover says, “The most powerful iPad ever is also the thinnest.”