Samsung, how much creativity does it really take to parody an Apple ad?

Last week Apple released an ad for its new iPad Pro that was widely panned. The ‘Crush’ ad showed a variety of creative instruments being crushed and ultimately transformed into an iPad Pro. The message was simple: thanks to the iPad’s power and app ecosystem, all of these creative tools can exist together in a new form, an ultra-thin M4 iPad Pro.

The image of destroying beloved creative tools, though, didn’t send the desired message. Apple later issued an apology. Now Samsung has released its own parody ad, ‘UnCrush,’ which itself demonstrates a continued pattern of lacking creativity.

Samsung as the device maker for creatives

In the new ad, a woman approaches the devastation wreaked by Apple, finds a guitar that’s somehow relatively unscathed, and begins strumming a song. It turns out she has a Galaxy Tab S9 with her, which she’s using to read chords off of. The ad ends with the line: “Creativity cannot be crushed.”

Personally, I think Apple deserves the criticism for not anticipating the amount of pushback its ad would receive. But Samsung presenting itself as the company for creatives is itself a stretch. It’s especially funny considering how little creativity the company often displays when it comes to advertising. Specifically, the company’s marketing team getting all its creative inspiration from Apple itself.

Samsung’s marketing inspiration: Apple

It’s well known that Samsung loves mocking Apple in its ads. In 2022 Samsung released an ad mocking Apple for being behind on innovative features. The year before it shared multiple ads poking fun at iPhone camera upgrades—a pattern that repeated itself the very next year. There are countless other examples, making ‘UnCrush’ just the latest Apple-focused ad and surely not the last.

You can judge for yourself whether Apple or Samsung has a better reputation with creatives. But perhaps if Samsung wants to present itself as a bastion of creativity, it can find a way to rely less on Apple for marketing material.