Apple's 'Fuzzy Feelings' Film Is An Old Holiday Story Told Fresh
To my personal delight, lotta Beatles going on his holiday season. Amazon has a very sweet spot with some grandmothers sledding that uses a gorgeous piano version of “In My Life.” And Apple is using a song from George Harrison called “Isn’t It A Pity.” Both are reflective, melancholy songs, but Harrison’s “Isn’t It A Pity,” while beautiful, is downright depressing. And that is just one of the reasons this Apple spot is so great.
Apple “Fuzzy Feelings”
creative Rating: 🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻 (out of a possible 5)
We’ve seen this “holiday story” a thousand times. It follows the classic character transformation theme where a character is mean spirited at first, something magical happens, and then the character sees the light and is no longer mean spirited. Scrooge is a great example. Elf’s natural father (James Caan character) is another. Luther Krank (Tim Allen’s character in “Christmas With The Kranks”). And the list goes on.
But the way this same old story is told in this Apple ad makes it feel entirely fresh. We have a woman who hates her boss. So much so, she makes him the unfortunate subject of her stop-motion film. She takes her disdain for her boss out on a little character who looks just like him. His pants get blown off, he gets buried by a snow plow, and is repeatedly slammed full-body into a mud puddle, among other torturous trials.
We hear the song “Isn’t It A Pity” throughout and, at first, we think the pity is for this woman. Her boss doesn’t look very nice, he’s rude to her, and clearly isn’t happy with her. But after a careful listen to the lyrics, the pity George Harrison describes is not directed at someone else, it’s shared. “How we break each other’s hearts and cause each other pain” as an example. This becomes prophetic when the woman sees why her boss is mean, rude, and not happy.
He’s lonely.
Isn’t it a pity?
Realizing this fact is the “Christmas moment” in the film. She sits in front of her stop-motion set and stares into the eyes of the little boss character as the lyrics, “When not too many people can see we're all the same.” It’s a lovely moment. And it’s at this moment we realize that the “Scrooge” of this story isn’t just the boss, it’s also the woman.
In hindsight, it makes sense. She’s been beating the hell out of her boss vicariously through her stop-motion film like a psychopath, but now transformed with empathy she gives the boss-character a companion, a puppy. The boss-character then experiences a happy ending and, because of her gesture, is a changed man.
Does the woman’s real-life gesture at the end, sitting with the boss over lunch, also lead to a happy ending? Well, if you look at the beautifully shot final scene, the woman approaches the boss, stands there for a beat, and the two stare into each other’s eyes. Exactly like the moment earlier when she stares at her stop-motion boss. I can’t tell you how much I love that creative decision. For this woman, these parallel moments represent the intersection between her fake stop-motion world and her real world. We can only assume, then, that her real boss will experience a similar happy ending to her character-boss.
Five Santas for an old story told freshly anew and leveraging a depressing, but poignant, song to amplify the drama.
Strategic rating: 🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻
The product—an Apple iPhone—is visible or implied throughout the stop-motion portions of the film. The film she’s making is very impressive and, so, we can only conclude that this iPhone is very impressive. There is no product push or gratuitous product scenes. It’s there only when necessary to move the plot forward, and no more.
I also really like the fact Apple chose stop-motion as the application of the iPhone. It’s an aspirational application, highly artistic, and out of the grasp of most. But that’s what makes it perfect. Viewers will likely think, if the iPhone can do THAT, then it can certainly do what I need it to do. Smart.
Overall, this film has a wonderful message. The people around us who annoy us may not be hating, but hurting. And recognizing that pain can heal both the people around us and ourselves.
I hope this film goes viral. Because, to George’s point, many more people will see we’re all the same.
Will Burns is the Founder & CEO of the revolutionary virtual-idea-generating company, Ideasicle X. He’s an advertising veteran from such agencies as Wieden & Kennedy, Goodby Silverstein, Arnold Worldwide, and Mullen. He was a Forbes Contributor for nine years writing about creativity in modern branding. Sign up for the Ideasicle Newsletter and never miss a post like this.