I rolled my eyes when I first saw the new-ish holiday spot from Apple. While shot beautifully and given an airy 1:40 runtime, it just didn't work for me. I couldn't put my finger on why because on the surface it's just a nice holiday spot, right? But I also couldn't ignore my visceral shudder whenever it came on.
Well, I finally decided to study this ad. And I think I figured out why it doesn't work for me. But first, in case you haven't seen it 75 times on Christmas movie reruns like I have, here's the spot I'm referring to:
It's a story without a plot.
Okay, a girl is walking down the street, plays a song by Sam Smith on her iPhone, transforms to a dreamier world and starts dancing around. Her dancing is a little precious, trying a little too hard to be profound. But it's a dream state, so on that I'll try not to get too hung up.
She runs into the guy on the street and snaps out of her dancy dreamworld for a moment. Invites him into her dancy dreamworld by putting the wireless earbud in his ear and they're off dancing a little too preciously together now.
The song doesn't help. Very EMO, also trying too hard to be profound.
But then just when the couple is about to kiss and consummate their dreamworld relationship into a real one, they snap out of it and walk away from each other.
What is this, a Black Mirror episode?
Or maybe a better cultural reference would be "Stranger Things," where a dark parallel universe they call "The Upside Down" is interconnecting with the real world. Ironically it's always snowing ashes in "The Upside Down," not unlike the soft snow falling in Apple's dancy dreamworld. But at least "The Upside Down" transforms its characters (darkly, but still). This dancy dreamworld apparently transforms no one.
How is this ad inspiring? How is it romantic that they walk away from each other in the real world? How does a romantic tragedy put us into the holiday spirit?
And by the way did the guy ever give back the earbud? I don't think he did. I mean, she definitely gives him the earbud in the real world, not in the dancy dreamworld. Yet he walks away as if she had never given him the earbud in the first place.
The whole thing is a beautiful, confusing letdown.
And the ad - remember it's an ad for Apple - doesn't say anything.
I could understand a letdown if it helped communicate something about the brand or the product. But what does this ad say? What do we learn about Apple because of this ad?
I guess it's mildly interesting that you can share your earbuds easily now since they're wireless. But is that it? Everyone knows that already. And everyone surely knows that Apple has music on its phones. So is that worth a million dollar production (guessing here) and 1:40 of airtime?
If you ask me, the answer is no. All of these factors I suppose were just under the surface of my own consciousness when I first watched the ad and first rolled my eyes. I needed to study the ad, think it through, and parse it out in order to articulate my view.
But I'm also open to the possibility that I can ruin anything - even a nice holiday spot - if I think about it too much.
