Fuzzy Feelings is not only arguably the best Christmas advert of 2023, it’s one of the most memorable stop motions of the year full stop." (It's Nice That). The live-action and stop-motion seamlessly create a one of a kind story with heart and humor, while pushing cinematography, animation, and storytelling concurrently. “Isn’t It a Pity” by George Harrison pairs perfectly both thematically and tonally.

Background & Brief: The world is going through a severe empathy crisis. Decreased social interaction, obsessing over our own struggles, doomsday scrolling, it all breeds hopelessness and apathy – why bother trying to understand what others are going through when everyone is hurting in some way?

Creativity has long been the bridge to understanding and empathizing with others. As a brand that believes creativity has the ability to improve our lives, Apple aimed to give the world a nudge in the right direction.

What better time than the holiday for a reminder to draw that bridge to understanding the people in our lives? With just an iPhone in our pocket, can we see the world through a new lens and invite others in?

The brief was to create a heartfelt holiday campaign that moved the world, and gave expression to Apple’s long-held core company value of “the power of creativity to improve our lives.” In an increasingly fragmented world, where individuals lack empathy, how can creativity allow us to to see others for who they truly are?

Our goal was to show how seeing others through a new lens can change how we see the world and others.

Just before Thanksgiving, the brand released our emotional film showcasing how iPhone, Mac, and ingenuity foster unexpected connections. The campaign was built to scale in a new way for Apple by leveraging owned and talent channels, adding an additional 4M+ organic views for the campaign.

Strategy & Insight When the world is facing a crisis of empathy, creativity is a bridge to understanding. While iPhone and Mac are storytelling tools that help transport you into the world of others, nothing strikes an emotional tone like the right song. Rather than dialogue, we borrowed the wisdom of George Harrison and “Isn’t it a pity” to imbue the brand message – we’re all the same. Strategically set during the holidays in London, the environment set the stage for the song and the story to leave a lasting impression with viewers.

Creative Idea Released as a short film online during the holidays, Fuzzy feelings tells a story of two worlds that mirror one another. Following the life of a young animator, we reveal that the main character in her stop-motion film is inspired by her real life — her boss, a middle-aged man in need of a shave. Each unknown transgression at work inspires pain and misfortune for the little felt doppelganger as the star in this after-hours cinema.

Only when she sees another side of her boss, that he’s just another human with his own struggles, does she realize that she is the one in charge of the story. Not only does she rewrite the ending for her felt protagonist, but she decides to rewrite the ending for her real-life relationship as well.

Craft & Execution Part live-action, part stop-motion, our 2-part film needed to be meticulously detailed to feel like one multimedia film. The felted stop-motion portion was helmed by stop-motion maestro, Anna Mantzaris (Isle of Dogs) and brought to life with help from Arch Model Studio (Coraline, Fantastic Mr. Fox). This was the first time that a feature film quality animation was shot on iPhone. In traditional stop-motion fashion, each model, prop and set was built by hand. We crafted 12 handmade puppets, 7 sets, 50+ tiny props and 100+ miniature lights.

We filmed for over a month, 250+ hours spent animating, capturing over 20,000 frames for the final stop-motion portion of the film. Finally, we adjusted color, exposure, VFX for thousands of frames, manually. Distributed on Apple’s YouTube channel with a Behind the Scenes edit dropping on YouTube and Instagram. The film was viewed over 23 million times and garnered 300+ articles globally.

Results Fuzzy Feelings garnered over 20 Million Total Views, with 4 Million Organic views. Even with the film having a running time of 3:45, the average view time was 2:23, an unprecedented 65% completion rate. Praised globally as “a film the world needs right now,” it topped all the holiday ad lists and even boosted George Harrison’s streaming by 25%. Internet reviews and comments lauded it as a work of art, highlighting its inspiring message of kindness. The films message generated 300+ headlines in 35 countries.