Commercials are clever things: little videos designed to elicit a response within seconds. Done poorly, and they are rude or annoying. But when done well, they offer something deep and meaningful. The new Apple holiday ad is out. And it’s a winner.

Sometimes the Apple holiday ad is abstract, sometimes it’s an animation (like the brilliant one with the Billie Eilish song), or a fleeting metaphor with stunning dancers who seem to fly. It’s always unpredictable.

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This year’s title is Heartstrings and it touches on a profound subject: hearing loss, and Apple’s remarkable response to it. This answer is the recently introduced hearing test for Apple AirPods Pro 2 – one earbud is the only visible product placement in the ad – and the fact that these headphones have now become established as clinical-grade hearing aids in some countries.

I tried the Hearing Test feature and it is a simple, effective five-minute test that can help you assess how your hearing is doing. If you have AirPods Pro 2, you should. It is already available in many countries and will come to Great Britain in December with iOS 18.2, for example.

And the ad touches on something important: we know that AirPods Pro 2 offer great music listening, we know that they have spatial audio, that when you take one out of your ear the music pauses, and that the active noise cancellation is spectacular.

But the commercial features a father with hearing loss who can’t quite hear the joyful moment of his daughter playing a song on a guitar until he puts a single AirPods Pro earbud in place.

Apple says: “For many of us, sound and the way we hear determine how we connect with the world around us. Yet people with hearing loss wait an average of ten years before having their hearing tested and suitable for hearing aids. Which leaves millions of people unaware that they are living with hearing loss and without the help they need. With the world’s first end-to-end hearing health experience, you have access to a hearing test that delivers scientifically validated results in minutes and the ability to activate clinical-grade hearing aid functionality on your AirPods Pro 2, right from home. ”

The commercial is breathtaking and a real tearjerker. Furthermore, it achieves its emotional impact while breaking an unspoken rule of filmmaking: if you want the audience to be moved to tears, the person on screen shouldn’t cry. This ad does both. It’s beautiful.

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