Child safety group parodies Apple’s ‘Crush’ to call for better iPhone protections for kids

Child advocacy organization Heat Initiative is spoofing Apple’s controversial “Crush” ad as a way to call on the tech giant to do more to protect children from online abuse.

“Don’t Crush Childhood” features a claymation re-enactment of Apple’s “Crush,” but with children’s toys and games being crushed by an iPhone. Slowly, the figures begin to be flattened—including a claymation version of an emoji ball—when a figurine of a little girl stands between the toys and the crusher (in this case, the iPhone), pushing it up with all her might. 

The spot ends with the phrase “Apple, build a future without child abuse.” 

The campaign intentionally recreates a polarizing spot in the creative and technology industries (for which Apple issued a rare apology) to urge big tech to take accountability for the dangers facing young people online. It comes as Heat Initiative raised $2 million in 2023 for a national advertising campaign calling on Apple to detect, report and remove child sexual abuse materials from iCloud, its cloud storage platform.

Also read: Apple apologizes for iPad Pro ad that ‘missed the mark’

Apple previously abandoned 2021 plans to scan iPhones for child sexual abuse materials on iCloud following backlash from privacy advocates. 

It also comes as, earlier this month, advocates and parents released a series of ads calling on Congress to pass the Kids Online Safety Act, following a January Senate hearing where parents and survivors confronted big tech CEOs, including Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg. 

Earlier this month, survivors, parents and advocates protested Apple during its Worldwide Developers Conference, calling on the company to reinstate its child safety features.

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