Sign up to get Today’s Best Articles in your inbox
Join 350,000+ subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of
The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
Want to add more newsletters?
An account already exists for this email address, please log in.
Apple's new Christmas commercial will make you feel warm and fuzzy feelings
Apple has a treacly new Christmas ad for the iPhone. And cloying as some might find it, it's actually pretty effective, too.
The 90-second spot features a jaded teen who's apparently too absorbed in his phone to enjoy the wonderful, life-affirming experience of Christmastime with family.
Eventually it's revealed that — spoiler alert — he's been filming everyone the whole time, and dazzles his relatives with a montage of creepshots: Family members share secret kisses, throw snowballs, lick spoonfuls of batter, and spend a whole 'lotta precious quality time with one another.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
It's all set to a down-tempo version of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." Grandma cries. Hugs are shared. Apple goes on to sell another gazillion iPhones. It's a Christmas miracle.
Yes, this is another new entry in the rising trend of supersad tech commercials, in which the technology fades into the background so the very emotional human element can take center stage. It's clever — fake images trigger real feelings, not unlike Love Actually or It's a Wonderful Life. (Where exactly you fall on that spectrum is up to you.)
Google started it, Apple ran with it, and now, here we are, in a salty winter puddle of tears.
Chris Gayomali is the science and technology editor for TheWeek.com. Previously, he was a tech reporter at TIME. His work has also appeared in Men's Journal, Esquire, and The Atlantic, among other places. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.
