Analysis: Apple delivers its strongest holiday ad
December 4, 2025
Apple’s 20025 Christmas advert, A Critter Carol, has earned an ‘exceptional’ 5.4 Stars with creative effectiveness platform System1 – making it the brand’s highest scoring advert ever tested.
System1’s Star Rating predicts an advert’s long-term brand growth and is calculated by measuring emotional response to each ad, with a score of 5.0 or above considered ‘exceptional’. A Critter Carol scored well above the average for UK Christmas adverts, which is 4.5 Stars in 2025.
Echoing scenes from the festive favourite, The Muppet Christmas Carol, Apple’s ad blends humour and storytelling to provide a fresh take on familiar cultural references. The creative shows a band of woodland creatures discovering an iPhone 17 Pro on the forest floor and using it to record a rendition of the song Friends by the Kiwi comedy duo Flight of the Conchords.
Along with earning 5.4 Stars, A Critter Carol also achieved an exceptional 1.49 Spike Rating, which calculates emotional intensity to predict a creative’s short-term sales potential. The creative has scored significantly higher than other Apple adverts, which tend to centre on the product and its features rather than storytelling. A recent Apple Mac advert, released in the UK in October this year, scored 3 Stars and a 0.81 Spike Rating.
Jon Evans, Chief Customer Officer, commented: “Apple has always been the master of functional, minimal, product-led communication, but this new Christmas film shows they can do rich, emotional storytelling too. No close-up product. No megapixel count. No headline message. Instead, it’s long-form festive storytelling with animals and emotion at the centre, pure ‘show, don’t tell.’ And it’s landing: this spot is not only Apple’s strongest holiday ad, but it has also achieved the highest score of any Apple ad in System1’s Competitive Edge database.”
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