Apple’s new ‘pro-family’ holiday ad has left viewers stunned with its emotional message.
The commercial pulls on the heartstrings to promote the hearing aid function of the new AirPods.
It opens with an unnamed family gathered together around a tree on Christmas morning as a daughter excitedly opens a present shaped like a guitar.
‘I think I know what it is!’ she excitedly exclaimed as her father looked on.
Viewers hear the rest through the damaged ears of the father, sipping his coffee and looking out the window.
Flashbacks of the little girl are shown to a muffled soundtrack – the dad, Apple wants you to know – can’t hear her singing.
That’s until he unboxes his new AirPods. Her voice crystalizes, the tears flow.
Viewers were stunned by the emotional play, after years of upbeat or trendy Apple ads.
‘I’m stunned. Apple just released the single greatest pro-parenting ad in the history of American advertising,’ Benny Johnson wrote on X. ‘Try not to cry…’
‘Not gonna lie, Apple’s holiday ad got me choked up,’ dad Jeff McLeod wrote on X.
‘I’m not crying, you’re crying,’ a woman named Savannah wrote.
A fourth X user wrote: ‘Oh, wow. Yep, that’s a tearjerker, alright. Congratulations @apple, ya got me.’
‘If Apple’s new ad doesn’t make you cry, you should see a therapist,’ a fifth wrote.
‘Apple hitting me right in the feels with a beautiful commercial I completely relate to as I wait for my hearing loss to get worse,’ a sixth wrote.
Apple’s new Airpods feature a ‘clinical-grade, over-the-counter hearing aid feature’ that the technology company believes will help around 1billion people living with ‘mild to moderate hearing loss.’
With a simple five-minute test, the product can be transformed into hearing aids, the company said.
The upgraded product will also provide hearing protection, like earplugs.
‘For so many of us, sound and how we hear shape how we connect to the world around us. Yet, people with hearing loss wait an average of 10 years before getting their hearing tested and fitted for hearing aids,’ the company wrote in the ad, directed by Henry-Alex Rubin.
Academy Award winner Paul NJ Ottosson did the sound design for the commercial.
This isn’t the first time Apple has put disabilities first.
Earlier this year, the company featured an ad called for sports equity during the Paralympic Games. It also ran an ad in 2023 about speech accessibility.