Google takes another dig at iPhone in Pixel holiday commercial

The ad highlights several AI features of the Google Pixel 8 that iPhones lack.

The saga of Google's ongoing rivalry with Apple receives a festive touch in a holiday commercial for the Pixel 8. Google recently released the eleventh addition to its anthropomorphic stop-motion ad series, #BestPhonesForever, featuring the escapades of an iPhone and a Google Pixel 8 smartphone.

The 1 minute and 11 seconds long short film, titled Must Be Santa,sees Google Pixel 8 help iPhone prepare an epic holiday wishlist. In the video, Pixel asks iPhone what it will ask Santa for, to which iPhone replies in a Siri-like automated voice, “I want Santa to give me all the AI stuff he got you!”

It also names a few AI features of the Google Pixel 8, like the ‘Magic Editor for removing and rearranging stuff in photos’.

“This year, the big man is gonna hook me up,” says the iPhone, to which the Google Pixel replies that it wasn’t Santa who gave it all the AI features but rather a bunch of Google engineers.

The conversation takes an empathy-inducing 'Twist' when, much like Charles Dickens' Oliver saying, "Please, sir, I want some more," the iPhone asks in its surprisingly emotive, robot-like automated voice, "Can... Can Santa give me a bunch of Google engineers?"

Also Read: Google compares Apple iPhone's texting technology to 1980s pagers

The iPhone’s childlike question is left unanswered as the spot ends with both the phones posing for a holiday picture.

Google Pixel launched its Pixel vs iPhone ad series in June this year. The series of films titled #Bestphonesever focus on Pixel’s innovative features, like astrophotography, Call Assist, and 30x Zoom capabilities.

Another film spoke about Pixel’s privacy and security measures.

During Halloween, the series focused on the launch of the Google Pixel 8 and showed that the iPhone is scared of people continuously comparing the two.

The three big companies in the space (Google, Apple and Microsoft) do resort to comparative advertising every now and then. For example, Samsung’s Fold & Flip series ads taking potshots at Apple were released in July this year.