Use Apple's Health app, and you'll have an easier time improving your health and wellness. That's Apple's pitch in its marvelously simple new spots, which use stop motion and animation to show the benefits of being good to your body.
Instead of showcasing users feeling satisfied after using the app—or really, any functionality of the app at all—the spots take a broader view, arguing that focusing on your health can and will improve your life.
"Staying healthy, it can feel complicated," the narrator intones. "The truth is, making changes in four key areas can make a difference. Just move a little more, eat a little better, sleep tighter and take a moment to calm your mind."
The pacifying voiceover works to take life changes that can feel overwhelming and simplify them into small goals that you'll be able to track easily if you use the app. The vivid visual cues zip along, making the overall message more impactful.
It's a smart strategy—combining a tranquil, almost dream-like narration with seemingly Wes Anderson-inspired graphics—to sedate viewers into believing that using the app will make them feel just as comforted as the ads do.
"Check in, see how you're doing, and track your progress over time," says a lovely British woman. "When you know your health better you know yourself better. Simple, really."
As lovely as the ads are, it's easy to see how someone could read the approach as condescending. Is taking care of your health really as simple as the narrator insists? No. But it's still nice to hear how retooling the way you think about it—and, of course, using the app—can enhance your life.