Apple’s holiday ad blends the real and imaginary in sweet plea for a kinder world

Apple’s much-anticipated 2023 holiday ad tells the story of an office worker by day, stop-motion animator by night, who uses her art to process a workplace conflict—before addressing the difficult relationship in real life, too. Ad Age A-List & Creativity Awards Final deadline approaching for annual program Enter here The nearly four-minute piece, which dropped Tuesday, includes nearly 70 seconds of stop-motion animation. It was impeccably crafted by TBWA\Media Arts Lab, Emmy-winning director Lucia Aniello (HBO’s “Hacks”) and Swedish stop-motion animator/director Anna Mantzaris. It’s set to the George Harrison track “Isn’t It a Pity” from his 1970 album “All Things Must Pass.” As is usually the case with Apple ads, this one serves as a product demo. Stop motion typically requires a professional-grade camera, given the level of detail that must be captured, but the protagonist here uses the iPhone 15 Pro Max and its 48-megapixel camera—shooting in the Apple RAW photo format. No additional lenses were used, according to Apple. It took nearly a month to create the stop-motion animation, including character and set design, prop making, puppet fabricating, tailoring, set building and filming. Once shooting got underway, three to four seconds of footage were completed per day. In all, over 10,000 images were taken to create the stop-motion scenes, according to the brand. See also: 2023 holiday ads from around the world “The details are ridiculous,” Tor Myhren, Apple’s VP of marketing communications, told Ad Age. “Every article of clothing—shirts, pants, jackets, socks, shoes and glasses—are all handmade and custom fabricated. Even the electrical miniatures on the sets like light fixtures, street lamps, string lights and fake candles in the windows of the restaurant were made by hand.” Mantzaris built two identical puppets for the boss character. This allowed them to shoot two scenes at once, while also showing the character getting progressively more worn due to his misfortunes. Since the character was based on the look of the live-action actor, they had to wait to finish casting before working on the puppet. Apple also created a behind-the-scenes making-of video for the film that explains more of the process. It took a while to settle on the Harrison song for the music, as well. “The road to find this track was long and winding,” said Myhren. “We did original scores, created bespoke new songs, and tried some sentimental classics. But when we found this George Harrison track, we knew we had it. The lyrics, the melody, the guitar—it’s like a spiritual journey. I read that it was rejected by the Beatles. But it’s perfect for us. Thank you, George.” Ad Age Creativity Bookmark our section covering the best in brand creativity every day Read more here Among the spot’s other collaborators were cinematographer James Laxton (the DP on “Moonlight,” “If Beale Street Could Talk” and “Underground Railroad”) and editor Tom Eagle (“JoJo Rabbit,” “Hunt for the Wilderpeople,” “What We Do in the Shadows”). In some ways, the ad harkens back to Apple’s 2018 holiday spot, the celebrated “Share Your Gifts,” which likewise used miniature sets and animation (though not stop-motion) to tell a story of personal creativity as a force for good. Similar themes return this time. “At Apple, we believe that creative people with passion can change the world—in big ways and small,” Myhren said. “The hero of this film does just that by using our tools to help mend a broken relationship. The action is very small, kind and human. And hopefully something we can all relate to.”

Apple’s holiday ad blends the real and imaginary in sweet plea for a kinder world

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