Samsung trolls Apple after failed iPad Pro "crush" ad

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A cheeky new Samsung advertisement makes light of a recent Apple ad for its iPad Pro that was widely panned as insensitive and out of touch. 

The Apple spot featured a hydraulic press shown crushing instruments, paint buckets, an arcade game and other objects, seemingly to demonstrate that the latest iPad is at once powerful and compact. But artists and other critics blasted Apple as tone deaf in view of mounting concerns about artificial intelligence and other technologies replacing people. 

Apple apologized for the ad shortly after it was released, acknowledging the spot "missed the mark."

Now Apple competitor Samsung, which has its own tablet, has piled on. In its ad, a woman enters a scene that appears to show the aftermath of the Apple ad. Amid splattered paint, she picks up a broken guitar and starts playing a tune while reading music off a Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 tablet.

"Creativity cannot be crushed," the tagline for the Samsung spot reads.

Directed by filmmaker Zen Pace, the spot from advertising agency BBH USA "celebrates a fundamental truth: creativity comes from within, and it's something that technology cannot take away from us," the ad agency said in a statement to CBS MoneyWatch. 

BBH USA executive creative director Estefanio Holtz said the industry chatter around Apple's "crush" ad provided his client, Samsung, with a unique opportunity to respond. "Samsung was interested in saying something, and it happened really fast," Holtz told CBS MoneyWatch. 

Focusing on a woman playing a broken guitar was a simple concept that Holtz said delivered a core message: "It's about humanity, and the tablet is just a tool that helps her play the notes," he said. "We went in the opposite direction to remind people, as we go through technological innovations, that we cannot leave humanity behind."

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Megan Cerullo

Megan Cerullo is a New York-based reporter for CBS MoneyWatch covering small business, workplace, health care, consumer spending and personal finance topics. She regularly appears on CBS News 24/7 to discuss her reporting.