The Apple Crush ad missed so badly that the company cancelled its planned TV slots and issued a public apology. That seemed to mostly make the issue go away, but Xiaomi seems determined to try to use the publicity to its own advantage.
The Chinese smartphone maker – which has in the past cloned everything from the iPad to Steve Job’s trademark jeans and turtleneck shirts – has now cloned the Crush ad, with one crucial difference …
Xiaomi’s history of cloning everything Apple
Where to start on this?
The company’s first products were named the Mi Phone and Mi Pad. The Mi Pad was an absolutely blatant copy of the iPad mini, both in terms of the hardware and a forked version of Android intended to provide an iOS-like UI.
The Mi 8 was a very close copy of the iPhone X design, and its AirDots in-ear headphones are an obvious copy of Apple’s AirPods.
But things didn’t end with the products – Xiaomi’s cloning continued with its marketing. The company replicated everything from Apple’s website design to its keynote presentation format – right the way down to its CEO wearing blue jeans and black turtleneck shirt and using the phrase ‘One More Thing.’
Apple Crush ad
Apple’s ad for the new iPad Pro depicted the crushing of musical instruments, paints, camera lenses, books, movie characters, sculptures, and more in an industrial press. The intention was to convey the idea that all of these tools had been squeezed into the new super-thin device, but many in the creative professions didn’t see it that way.
It is the most honest metaphor for what tech companies do to the arts, to artists musicians, creators, writers, filmmakers: squeeze them, use them, not pay well, take everything then say it’s all created by them.
Apple acknowledged that it had “missed the mark” with the ad, apologized, and said it would not be seen again.
Xiaomi’s Crush ad clone
The company tweeted its own version, which copies ad so closely that it could easily be mistaken for it – but stops the press before it gets as far as crushing anything.
It’s a promo for the upcoming Xiaomi 14 Civi smartphone launch in India, which is believed to be a rebrand of the Civi 4 Pro model sold in China.
Apple’s ad may have been cringeworthy, but riffing on it to try to ride the publicity wave is even more so.
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