Apple has a new ad out for the AirPods Pro 3, and it leans on a famous face. Vini Jr., the Real Madrid forward, spends the spot dancing through a city untroubled by the noise around him. The timing is deliberate: it arrives as the World Cup kicks off, so if you are following the tournament you will probably catch it between matches for weeks.
The pitch is the active noise cancellation. Apple calls it the "world's best in-ear Active Noise Cancellation" and backs the line with a number: the Pro 3 block up to twice the noise the AirPods Pro 2 could, and the Pro 2 had already doubled what the original managed. That is Apple's own figure, not an independent test, so treat the doubling as a marketing claim until reviewers measure it.
An ad is an ad, and this one is built around a celebrity and a single number rather than a feature walkthrough. Putting Vini Jr. front and center during the biggest football event of the year still tells you who Apple wants reaching for the Pro 3, and you can expect the spot on TV well past the group stage.
