• by Todd Wasserman , November 26, 2021

Apple has debuted an ad with an uplifting message for the holidays featuring a family and a small snowman. 

The ad, via TBWA\ Media Arts Lab, shows a girl watching her brother topple snowmen in her yard. She runs out, tells her brother to wait and takes the smaller snowman in her house. Her parents watch as she discards some items from the freezer to make way for the snowman. 

As the weather warms, she keeps checking on the snowman in the freezer. Eventually, summer comes and she takes it camping with them (in a cooler). When Halloween and winter come again, she takes the snowman outside. As the family watches, a bicyclist comes by and splatters the snowman.

Unexpectedly, her brother then starts helping her build a new snowman. The parents then join in. 

“To the ones we’ve waited all year to be with,” reads a caption. Then, “Happy Holidays.” 

The ad is notable since it’s three minutes long, doesn’t contain a single Apple product (though it was shot on the iPhone 13 Pro) and is scored with the song “You and I” by Valerie June. 

The ad was also shot by the father-son duo of directors Ivan Reitman and Jason Reitman.