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Apple wants you to share your AirPods this Christmas

Commentary: The tech giant releases a holiday ad that shows the true meaning of love. Or, at least, dancing.

Chris Matyszczyk
2 min read

Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.


airxmas

Love means sharing your AirPods with strange men.

Apple/YouTube screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET

There's not enough of them to go around this Christmas.

No, I don't mean loving relationships. I mean AirPods . That's at least one message sent by Apple's newly-released ad for the Holidays.

We see a girl walking in the street. She's not a poor girl. She's got an iPhone X , after all. 

Infused with the joys of Christmas, she needs some music to reflect her mood. As the (fake) snow falls, she turns to the plaintive tones of Sam Smith.

This, for some reason, immediately makes her perform dance moves in the snow. Everyone who walks by ignores her. Do they not appreciate her moves? 

But then she runs into a man. Coincidentally, he's a handsome man, and he catches her in full pirouette. 

She takes one look at him and immediately knows that this is love. How do we know? She gives him one of her AirPods. He's in love too, as he clearly gives no thought to ear infections. 

There follows a dance routine that doesn't quite reach the standards of, say, "So You Think You Can Dance."

"Real love is never a waste of time," croons Smith. I fear one or two people might feel that this ad doesn't quite meet the "please me for 1 minute and 40 seconds" criterion.

It's pleasantly Fred and Ginger, but it's hardly got the emotional pull of, say, the ad Apple released four years ago in which an apparently self-absorbed teen is revealed to be very caring after all. 

Perhaps this saccharine blandness is what we crave these days. The year has been so fraught with extremes that we need old-fashioned reassurance. We need something that won't challenge us, something that makes us believe in make-believe.

May your Thanksgiving be surprisingly free of friction.

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