At 5 minutes and 36 seconds, Spike Jonze’s commercial for AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) starring Pedro Pascal is indeed a “film” of sorts, just as Apple labels it on YouTube. Well, Someday is more of a music video that’s not made for a band or singer but for a product whose sole purpose is to help you play sound, whether it’s music, movies, books, podcasts, or phone calls.
But I don’t need to tell you what AirPods are or what they do. Apple’s wireless earphones are a massive success for the company. Everybody and their grandmother know what AirPods are. Apple’s wireless earphones continue to sell like hotcakes, and Apple continues to release new hardware models and software features that work across the AirPods family.
As for the AirPods 4 with ANC, they’re not even the more expensive AirPods Apple sells. They’re the mid-range model between the mid-range AirPods 4 and the high-end AirPods Pro 2. While the AirPods 4 family is somewhat confusing, they don’t need a Spike Jonze ad, especially one that doesn’t actually focus on the product itself or its ANC features.
But with all that in mind, I’m glad I got to see this unnecessary AirPods 4 film, and it’s all because of Pedro Pascal’s performance, dancing included.
Given the current context, I was prepared to hate this AirPods 4 ad on principle. We don’t need more Apple marketing campaigns with massive budgets at this point in time. By “context,” I mean Apple’s big Apple Intelligence fiasco, where the marketing department shoulders a large part of the blame.
Apple’s AI ads and fake demos promised us that advanced Siri features, unlike what ChatGPT and Gemini could offer at the time Apple’s Apple Intelligence ads were made, would come to the iPhone this year. That’s no longer the case. Apple pulled that Siri ad and postponed the smart Siri to next year or later.
Compared to Apple Intelligence, AirPods 4 doesn’t need more commercials. Apple would be better off spending that money on making the AI it promised at WWDC 2024 happen. And I say that as an AirPods and iPhone user who wants the Siri future that Apple promised.
But the more I watched Pedro Pascal’s unnamed character in the ad, the more I realized how amazing this film is. The protagonist is clearly going through something incredibly painful. We all are, to some extent. The music he listens to through AirPods 4 (with ANC) helps him revisit the better times from his past and transport him to an alternate reality.
That music shields him from the cold world around him, allowing his mind to briefly escape and eventually put a smile on his face. That’s all he needs. AirPods 4 (with ANC) and a couple of songs. That cold reality will still be there when he removes the earphones. He’ll still have to deal with it, but it might be just a little easier.
What really got me was the unexpected plot twist in Spike Jonze’s film about AirPods. Halfway through the clip, the music track changes, and Pedro Pascal gets involved in an improvised dance routine. At this point, you have to keep watching.
The more I watched, the more I realized I saw myself in that ad. I’m using AirPods (without ANC) and music to help me run marathons. I spend plenty of time training for that, and, again, AirPods are a key part of helping me race. I use the AirPods to make the time go faster, escape reality, think, and perhaps see more color in the day.
You don’t need AirPods 4 with ANC to escape in music like Pedro Pascal’s character does. Any decent wireless earphones would do.
