I’m not gonna lie, I love puppets, so perhaps I’m a bit biased when it comes to Apple’s latest “Shot on iPhone 17 Pro” commercial that features forest-animal puppetry and, more notably, not a lick of AI.
Sure, Apple might be avoiding AI because of the “where’s the AI version of Siri” elephant in the room, but I think this approach is just spot-on for triggering warm, fuzzy holiday feelings. And while you might imagine it’s a rejoinder to the poorly-received Coca-Cola all-AI holiday ad, surely Apple’s been working on this three-minute spot, which launched today, for months.
Watch On
In the ad, a couple hiking through the forest lose their Deep Blue iPhone 17 Pro. Soon, a scruffy-looking bunch of forest creatures find it, and then, as animals so often do, they start using the phone to shoot themselves singing a song (which they then left for the couple once they’ve used Apple’s Find My to locate the lost phone).
It’s a lot more clever than it sounds. The animal puppets are adorably rendered, looking very much like they’ve been living in the forest for their whole lives. Plus, the animals do not all just get along. At one point, a wolf eats the rat, but is soon encouraged to spit him out. There’s even a bit of dark humor involving what they’d do if one were run over.
The point of the film is how, perhaps, we can all get along despite our differences, and how good the iPhone 17 Pro is at 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 among the best phones of 2025. They’re fantastic everyday devices and powerful photography and video-shooting phones.
I enjoyed the commercial, but the behind-the-scenes video is far more interesting. It reveals the full extent of the craftsman nature of the whole enterprise. Each puppet was handcrafted and operated by a team of puppeteers, most of whom were dressed in blue body suits so they could be scrubbed out in the post-process.
Even the set is real – not a real forest, mind you, but a real stage platform to support the puppets and puppeteers.
Again, this is a smart and canny way for Apple to show off features like the shooting quality and 8x zoom (a sensor crop).
Ultimately, I think this very real commercial will be remembered long after people forget Coca-Cola’s latest AI ad misstep.
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