• by Todd Wasserman , January 4, 2022

Apple has run many ads for the Apple Watch, touting its ability to receive texts, its stylishness and its ability to let you play games, among other attributes. 

Now Apple is starting 2022 with an ad touting the Apple Watch’s lifesaving potential. 

This ad, from TBWA/Media Arts Lab, features real calls from three people—”Jason,” “Jim” and “Amanda,” who faced life-or-death situations but were saved thanks to their Apple Watches. 

Apple has confirmed that the calls in the ad are real. If so, the situations are pretty terrifying. In Amanda’s case, her car flipped and she was trapped inside while water was getting in. Jason went out paddle boarding and a hard wind pushed him out to sea. Jim was on the farm when he fell 21 feet and broke his leg. Jim explains that he can’t get to his cell phone. 

Within a short time, all three get lifesaving help. The ad explains that with the help of their Apple Watches, each were rescued within minutes. 

There have indeed been cases in which an Apple Watch saved their owner’s life. In December, an 85 year-old man was saved in Canada thanks to the watch’s ability to detect its owner’s fall and call 911. Of course, users have to set those possible alerts beforehand by triggering the Health app and the Heart Rate app as well as enabling Fall Detection.  

Once you have set up those detection apps, though, you can rest assured that you have some protection against death in an unforeseen circumstance.  

It’s an effective ad, even if it may remind you of the ads from the 1980s in which a woman shouted “I’ve fallen, and I can’t get up,” to an operator via her medical alarm bracelet. Apple ran a similar ad in 2012 that featured Apple employees helping customers in high-pressure situations, but pulled the ads within a few days.