Apple has recently released a new commercial for the Series 7 Apple Watch, and it’s disturbing to say the least. 

Each commercial opens the same, with the standard phrase of  “911, what’s your emergency?” It then transitions into multiple different calls from what Apple has confirmed are real 911 emergency calls, with no warning for the disturbing content that the commercial contains. 

One of the calls is from a woman named Amanda. She’s been in a car accident that caused her car to flip, and water is rushing into the car. Another is from a man who went out paddleboarding and is being pushed out to sea by a strong current, and can’t get back to the shore.

Listening to these commercials before knowing that these calls were real was disconcerting, but hearing them with the knowledge that the calls come from actual people adds a whole new level of discomfort to the entire situation. 

Apple has always done extravagant things with their ads, trying to promote their newest product as best they can. The commercial is aimed at advertising the safety features that an Apple Watch contains, and it definitely provides the level of discomfort that would make a customer want to buy the newest watch. 

However, the commercials fail to provide the full information. A standard Apple Watch does not come with the ability to call anyone, including 911. In order to get this feature, Apple requires you to pay $10 a month in order to get the cellular feature on a watch whose base price is $399.

While Apple arguably does succeed in making a potential customer want to buy the Series 7 watch, they do so in a way that puts the audiences in a greatly uncomfortable position, and it has solidified itself as a commercial I definitely don’t want to see when I watch TV.