Apple’s ad introducing its new HomeView smart display is a little unusual. It’s fast-paced and unruly, depicting a family of five as they rush through the morning routine. There’s yelling and mess, misplaced keys and discarded eggshells. Apple’s typical vibe is clean, simple, orderly; this commercial is chaos.
But the spot has parents — those with teen children in particular — feeling seen.
I’ll admit that it stressed me out the first time I watched it, too. Mornings getting my five-year-old out the door are a special breed of chaos, and usually culminate in us playing whatever ad-libbed game will get him to put his shoes on. But it’s not quite as intense as this one, which features dad making french toast, mom losing and finding keys in her pocket, a proxy battle over the thermostat, a teenage boy helping himself to whipped cream from a can, and an unexpected video call. There’s also a microdrama about the daughter’s ride to school with a boyfriend nobody knew about that ends with everyone gathered around the HomeView watching the security camera feed of the two of them departing the porch. It’s a lot for just over three minutes of screen time.
If I know anything though, I know to trust my colleague, senior reviewer and parent to two teens, Jen Tuohy on matters of the home. Her take? “The most unrealistic part of the video is that no one is holding an iPhone.”
Even if Apple didn’t need to do much to heighten the stakes of a family getting out the door, there is of course plenty of sleight-of-hand at work when it comes to making the HomeView appear so essential. The family has seemingly drilled a hole directly into the middle of their kitchen island to accommodate the charging cable, for one. And what sibling is going to check a text message from a secret boyfriend on the communal kitchen screen with their brother sitting at arm’s length? I don’t believe any teenager trusts Apple’s privacy features that far.
The confusion about the commercial is understandable. This is a far cry from the quiet luxury lifestyle everyone seems to enjoy in Apple’s Vision Pro ads. There’s also Evans’ observation that the HomeView doesn’t really solve any of the problems that come up throughout the coarse of the video. In the case of a spontaneous FaceTime call from the grandparents, the screen in the middle of the kitchen seems to make things worse.
But maybe morning chaos isn’t the problem that’s being solved. If the alternative is five people all interacting with their own phones, then the HomeView presents a different picture where everyone gets the essential information they need from one shared screen and stays more present.
A screen that makes you be more present is a lovely idea, but the real test will come when it’s in in real households. Is the HomeView going to be enough to convince families to put their personal devices down? Will everyone just ignore it and keep scrolling on their own iPhones? These are questions worth answering before you start drilling holes in your kitchen island! In any case, an ungovernable morning routine is probably a feature of a busy household, not a bug. Just ask a parent.