Yes, It's Commercialism, But I Do Like Apple's New Holiday Ad

The thing I hate about Christmas the most is the incessant begging to buy, buy, buy, buy BUY!

A seemingly self absorbed teen seems to ignore the
family in this Apple television ad, and then...... 

I know this makes me a hypocrite, because one of my jobs outside this blog is to, um, encourage people to buy stuff as gifts for Christmas.

But still, most of the Christmas ads you see on TV are too shrill, too cliched, too mawkish and too stupid for my tastes.

I have to admit it, though, I did like the new Apple commercial I first saw on TV last night.

In the ad, called "Misunderstood", an extended family goes off to the grandparents house in a winter wonderland to celebrate the holiday.

While most of the family seems to be having a ball, a morose looking teenager constantly has his nose in an iPhone, continually pecking away at the device's tiny keyboard. This, despite the family's efforts to engage the kid.

Christmas morning comes, and the teen is still pecking away at his phone. While the family opens the gifts, the teen finally stops playing with the iPhone, stops everybody at mid-gift opening,  points his iPhone at the big screen TV and turns it on

He wants to show the family something. Apple then manages to prompt a Kleenex alert with the ad.

Like I said, I actually think the ad is very well done: