Coach iPhone tries to motivate his team against the Pixel’s new AI features in Google’s latest ad،
A day after two close conference championship games ended with the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers still standing, Google released the latest ad in its #BestPhonesForever series called “The Big Game.” These hugely popular ads use stop-motion animation to depict the friendship between the iPhone and Pixel handsets. To give credit where credit is due, Google is promoting the capabilities of its Pixel phones and will knock the iPhone, but in a way that fans of both phones love these ads.
It's halftime of the Big Game between the iPhones and the Pixels and Coach iPhone (who is wearing the old hat of the late Tom Landry – Google!) is trying to motivate his team. “I know it feels like the dynamic is changing, but this game isn’t over yet.” One of the players on the iPhone team says, “But Coach, the other team is still getting new AI features.” Another player says the other team has “Circle to Search”. This is a feature that allows a Pixel user to circle something in a photo and get search results for that item.
Another player talks about the Pixel 8 Pro's Video Boost feature which sends a video to Google for enhanced processing using AI. The rest of the players are devastated by these AI features. “We are doomed,” says an iPhone. But Coach iPhone doesn't want to hear any of that. As inspiring soccer music plays in the background, the coach says, “Enough! Of course, Team Pixel has advanced AI to correct group photos, summarize recordings, and reduce noise in the videos. But it doesn't matter what you have inside. It's what's on the outside that counts.”
The coach points out that the iPhone Pro models are lighter, have contoured edges and “a differently shaped charging port.” The coach goes on to say, “You don't need fancy AI to edit photos and filter spam calls. FOCUS! This is our time. Let's get back out there. And make sure they get will forever remember the night they played against the team who dared to turn a switch into an action button. The fact is that even though the Pixel 8 series brought serious changes thanks to the new AI features, Apple was happy with the small cosmetic changes made to the iPhone 15 Pro models.
The commercial ends with the iPhone telling the Pixel: “I lost my playbook. Can I borrow yours?” There is a lot of meaning in this line. This implies that the iPhone has lost its way and the Pixel, through the use of AI features, knows where it is going in the smartphone market. In fact, last weekend we learned that iOS 18 would be a huge update for the iPhone with many new AI features and should include a huge improvement for Siri.