I’m not going to lie, I love dolls, so I might be a little biased when it comes to apple’s latest ad, “Filmed on iphone 17 pro,” which features forest animal dolls and, best of all, no hint of artificial intelligence.
Sure, Apple may be shying away from AI because of the question of where the AI version of Siri is, but I think this approach is just what’s needed to evoke some warm and fuzzy holiday feelings. And while you might imagine this is a response to Coca-Cola’s ill-received and entirely AI-powered Christmas ad, Apple has actually been working on this three-minute ad, released today, for months.
The Apple Festival | A Christmas Creature | Taken with iphone 17 Pro – YouTube
In the commercial, a couple drops their Deep Blue iphone 17 Pro while walking through the woods. He is soon found by a group of nasty forest creatures and then, as animals often do, they start using the phone to shoot each other and sing a song (which they then leave to the couple after using Apple’s “Find My” to find the missing phone).
He is much smarter than he seems. The animal dolls are cute and look like they have lived in the forest all their lives. Also, not all animals get along with each other. At one point, a wolf eats the mouse, but is soon tempted to spit it out. There is also some dark humor about what they would do if they ran someone over.
The film is about how we can all get along despite our differences and how amazing the iPhone 17 Pro is when it comes to video. For what it’s worth, the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are two of my favorite smartphones of the year and are among the best phones of 2025. They’re great devices for everyday use and powerful phones for taking photos and filming.
I liked the commercial, but that Behind the scenes video It is much more interesting. It reveals the full extent of the know-how of the entire company. Each puppet was handmade and operated by a team of puppeteers, most of whom wore blue jumpsuits so they could be washed after the process.
Even the decor is real: it’s not a real forest, of course, but a real stage platform to support the puppets and puppeteers.
Again, this is a clever way for Apple to show off features like recording quality and 8x zoom (a sensor crop).
In the end, I think this very real ad will be remembered long after people forget Coca-Cola’s recent AI ad blunder.
Do you want to give an iPhone 17 (or iphone air or iPhone 16) as a gift to yourself or someone else? See our Black Friday deals below.