Apple’s new pro-family ad is a breakthrough in the battle against corporate wokery
A cultural realignment is afoot, appearing in the unlikeliest of places. Implicit in the recent Republican sweep of government was a rejection of progressive rule, gender ideology, and identity politics. But what also lost its power was corporate nihilism and cynicism.
A new ad from tech behemoth Apple is a breakthrough in this respect, affirming that life – and all the people in it – is a gift. After years of moral confusion in America, we may be seeing a return to wholesomeness in cultural life. Sometimes it takes overwhelming defeat for corporations to have a marketing epiphany about what matters.
Filmed through the eyes of a father who struggles with hearing loss, the Apple ad conveys his sorrow that he’s not able to fully experience his daughter’s milestones because of his handicap. Her exclamations and giggles as a toddler are muted and muffled, dulled by his disability. It’s the sadness of missing a child’s upbringing because of forces outside a parent’s control. The pain in his defeated countenance strikes the viewer right in the heart.
But then the ad pans to him on Christmas morning, putting in a pair of Apple AirPods with a hearing aid feature. As his now teenaged daughter sings and plays “Our House” by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young on her guitar, he hears her clearly. The dad is overcome with emotion as his incomplete memories become whole.
From the positive reactions on X, you’d think that the ad was the rarest thing ever produced. In a way, for Gen Z at least, it is. For years, we’ve been deprived of this kind of goodness in advertising, forced to watch beloved brands succumb to wokeness. We remember the self-immolation of Bud Light, which decided to alienate its consumer base of blue-collar truckers by making transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney a brand ambassador.
The Apple ad was refreshingly absent of any lecturing about the climate crisis, racial pandering meant to blame white people for all the inequities in society, or LGBT activism. It was a far cry from 2022 Apple, when the company added a new emoji of a pregnant man to its spring software update. Moreover, it was an intimate look into the joys of family that are all the more precious during the holiday season.
Apple seems to have received the memo that woke is dead, but British car company Jaguar is still asleep at the wheel. Its latest ad features androgynous models parading around in neon costumes on a pink planet, without any mention of a car. It left many bewildered, given that Jaguar’s target audience is supposedly classy gentlemen who indulge in cigars, Scotch, and other refined activities like luxury James Bond-style automobiles.
Credit: Jaguar
The Apple ad was a tearjerker from start to finish. The company’s technology is defying disabilities and helping the partially deaf to relish the magic of life again. And to the shock of many, Apple is bringing family together in a whole new way. If all else fails, a good litmus test for an ad is whether or not it strikes a chord of emotion. If it leaves people confused as to what, in fact, a company is even selling, it’s time to go back to the writing room.
Jaguar is engaging in self-indulgent woke experiments that no one is buying anymore. Apple is actually listening.
Caroline Downey is a staff writer at National Review and visiting fellow at the Independent Women’s Forum