The Apple Christmas TV ad may be sweet, but it leaves a bad taste

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/dec/15/apple-christmas-tv-advert

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Apple’s 2014 Christmas advert, titled “The Song”, has arrived – and it’s an emotional affair; not so much tugging at the heart strings as picking at them one by one like price tags on presents.

The advert depicts a teenage girl finding an old 45rpm recording of her grandmother, Valerie, singing the jazz standard “Love is Here to Stay” to her late husband, Raymond, in 1952.

We then see the teenager recreate the song, using software on an Apple Macbook Air laptop, to turn it into a digitally remastered duet.

The 90-second spot ends with granny Valerie listening to the thoughtful DIY gift on her iPad mini 3, crying while looking over a picture of her and Raymond, on Christmas morning.

There’s no doubt this is a touching effort from Apple’s marketing team: it’s bound to cause a lot of tears wept into mince pies and sherry glasses. I’ll admit to feeling mildly affected.

However, there are a few things we all need to address here. Namely, what kind of empathy-void sociopath ruins her grandmother’s Christmas by reminding her of her dead husband? The love of her life, who is dead. Look how sad Valerie is:

Tears glistening on her cheeks, like little orbs of memories; fragments of a life lived with Raymond.

Second: let’s be honest, Valerie doesn’t really give a shit about her granddaughter’s duet.

Valerie is just straight up into the fact Santa brought her brand new iPad mini 3, cos now she’ll be able to watch RuPaul’s Drag Race and Don’t Tell the Bride from her bed.

There’s also the fact that the granddaughter, who sits smugly on the stairs in the dark at the end of the video – I’m gonna use the word lurking, in fact – has the audacity to just rifle through Valerie’s stuff to even stumble upon the record in the first place.

Excuse me, but Valerie isn’t dead yet. Valerie isn’t Raymond. Have some respect. One can’t just rifle through a grandmother’s things in the hope of finding something special in the hope of inheriting it.

Lastly, all of this brilliant creativity courtesy of Apple’s products is slightly undermined by the disclaimer across the advert that “additional hardware is required”. And software. Basically, buying GarageBand is on you, kid.

Christmas-themed adverts have become a pop-culture staple. John Lewis’ annual festive television spot is hotly anticipated; and Sainsbury’s also made a morally dubious advert this year, featuring the Christmas Day football-inspired temporary ceasefire of the first world war.

Meanwhile, Apple’s adverts are also regularly greeted with fanfare for being memorable or including big names or popular music. Past examples include: the ad featuring Feist’s “1,2,34”; the “Get a Mac” advert imagining human embodiments of Macs and PCs, and the recent “Stickers” campaign.

None of those however, were responsible for breaking Valerie’s heart.

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