Apple’s AirPods Pro 2 hearing aid ad is an emotional gut-punch to the heart

Long the purview of doctors, prescription, and expensive hardware, it’s a pivotal moment for hearing aid technology with over-the-counter clinical-grade solutions like Apple’s recently updated AirPods Pro 2 arriving in consumers’ ears and potentially changing lives.

I think that is the message of Apple’s latest holiday commercial, “Heartstrings,” naturally, which focuses specifically on the Apple AirPods Pro 2’s latest auditory capabilities.

Apple unveiled its over-the-counter (OTC) clinical-grade hearing aid test and augmentation in September alongside its new iPhone 16 handsets. Instead of new hardware, Apple was able to push a firmware update in the Apple AirPods Pros and for iPhones courtesy of iOS 18.1. I tried the hearing test last month and was surprised to find that I am not suffering from much hearing loss at all.

Apple’s ad, though, paints a different scenario. In the video, which you can view on YouTube, a teenager opens her Christmas gift in front of her parents. It’s a guitar, and as she tears into the wrapping, her father’s mind traces back through flashbacks of her childhood. It’s touching and effective because the toddler and child all appear to be the same person, but it’s also heartbreaking because of the audio in the current scene, and all the memories are muffled. The father is clearly suffering from some hearing loss.

Heartstrings | Apple Holiday | Hearing Aid feature on AirPods Pro 2 – YouTube

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Apple doesn’t specify his level of hearing loss but its Hearing Aid technology is designed to address mild-to-moderate hearing loss and not something that might be addressed with a doctor-prescribed hearing aid.

The daughter begins playing on her new (and miraculously in-tune) guitar, and the mother encourages the dad to “listen”. He puts in the AirPods Pros and the sound is, as the commercial depicts it, instantly clearer. He uses a hearing aid volume slider on the iPhone to raise the volume of the assisted hearing.

I don’t know if it’s because I’m a dad or that Apple’s advertising firm is just that good, but I got emotional watching…