Apple’s Magical Media Arts AirPods
TBWA\Media Arts Lab was established in 2006, as a dedicated, in-house advertising agency for Apple, Cupertino, California.
With offices in Los Angeles, London, Miami, Shanghai, Singapore, and Tokyo, TBWA\Media Arts Lab has become one of the world’s most awarded and innovative agency networks, with their consistent record of globally lauded advertising initiatives for various Apple product campaigns, that include magical commercials for Apple’s AirPods.
1. Apple AirPods Pro, Quiet the Noise
Advertising Agency: TBWA\Media Arts Lab, Los Angeles, California, USA
Production Company: Iconoclast, Los Angeles, California, USA
Post Production and VFX Studios: Electric Theatre Collective, Los Angeles, California, USA
Apple Cupertino and TBWA\Media Arts Lab, Los Angeles, remarkably garnered 4 out of the 7 outstanding commercials nominated for the 2023 Emmy Awards.
The four are: Apple The Greatest, Apple TV+ Call Me, Apple R.I.P. Leon, and the spectacular Apple AirPods, ‘Quiet the Noise’, directed by the Megaforce, Filmmakers Collective, of Leo Berne, Clement Gallet, Charles Brisgand, and Raphaël Rodriguez.
The stirring soundtrack features Zimbabwean-born Australian singer-songwriter and rapper, Tkay Maidza’s 80s hit song, “Where is my Mind?”
2. Apple AirPods Pro, Share The Joy
Advertising Agency: TBWA\Media Arts Lab, Los Angeles, California, USA
Production Company: Labhouse/MJZ, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Belgian-French choreographer Damien Jalet, American dancer Vinson Fraley, and Israeli dancer Gal Zusmanovich, give filmic expression to the innate joy of listening to music that stirs one’s imagination to unbridled heights.
Filmed in Buenos Aires, the AirPod commercial features a resonant soundtrack titled “PUFF” by Argentine music producer Gonzalo Julián Conde, known professionally as Bizarrap, and Belgian-Argentine hip-hop artist Indra Bhalavan, and was directed by renowned Argentine advertising conceptualiser, writer, and filmmaker, Juan Cabral.
Juan Cabral, has won every major award in advertising, that includes over 25 Cannes International Festival of Creativity Lions, and 2 Grand Prix trophies.
His impressive portfolio highlights for me, encompasses the famous Cadbury Dairy Milk ‘Gorilla’ commercial which he wrote and directed, his ambitiously conceived ‘Colour Like No Other’ Sony Bravia campaign, featuring a cascade of bouncing rubber balls, and the breathtaking IKEA Beds commercial of vivid recall.
3. Apple AirPods Pro, Jump
Advertising Agency: TBWA\Media Arts Lab, Los Angeles, California, USA
Production Company: Imperial Woodpecker, Los Angeles, California, USA
Directed by filmmaker Sam Brown, TBWA’s ‘Jump’ scenario, highlighting the AirPods Pro’s Active Noise Cancellation, and All-Day Fit features, that can transform one’s world into a giant playground, starred Japanese professional jumper, Kengo Sugino, in an upbeat commercial, of seemingly endless, magical street game actions, that were also promoted on TikTok.
The Grammy nominated soundtrack by Australian DJ, and record producer, Young Franco, from Brisbane, Queensland, features the single “Fallin Apart” performed by American rapper, singer, songwriter, Jared Pell, and American hip-hop star, Denzel Curry.
4. Apple AirPods, Bounce
Advertising Agency: TBWA\Media Arts Lab, Los Angeles, California, USA
Production Company: Pulse Films, Los Angeles, California, USA
Post Production Company: Framestore, Los Angeles, California, USA
Apple AirPod’s voice-activated, wireless charging, ‘Bounce’ scenario, was masterly directed by filmmaker Oscar Hudson, in an impressive monochromatic, multi award-winning, commercial, that included six Gold Pencils at The One Show 2020, an ADC ‘Best of Advertising award 2021, and Gold Cube awards for craft and video branded content.
Filmed in the Ukraine’s Capitol of Kiev, the fluid movements of French dancer, choreographer, acrobat, and performance artist, Yoann Bourgeois, that play out against a soundtrack of “Learnt Some Jazz Today” by Jamaican-born producer and songwriter, known as Tessellated, were most notably, captured on camera without special effects.
Huge two-meter high sets were designed and built in a hangar, so that Yoann Bourgeois, could safely perform his live action jumps and trampoline acrobatics, with the utmost of demonstrable flexibility.
5. Apple iPhone and AirPods, Sway
Advertising Agency: TBWA\Media Arts Lab, Los Angeles, California, USA
Production Company: Imperial Woodpecker, Los Angeles, California, USA
Post Production an VFX Companies: Cosmo Street, Los Angeles and The Mill, Los Angeles, California, USA
Apple’s Festive Season ‘Sway’ scenario, directed by filmmaker Sam Brown, centres on two strangers coming together, and the power of music to connect all of us, stars professional dancers, and married couple, Lauren Yalango-Grant, and Christopher Grant.
The filmic transformation of the romanticised settings, and backdrops to their elegant ‘sway’ dancing, are accompanied by a fitting soundtrack of English singer and songwriter, Sam Smith’s love song, “Palace”.
6. Apple AirPods, Stroll
Advertising Agency: TBWA\Media Arts Lab, Los Angeles, California, USA
Production Company: Imperial Woodpecker, Los Angeles, California, USA
Apple’s first ever AirPods commercial, directed by filmmaker Sam Brown of Rogue Films London, in 2017, and filmed in Mexico City, stars Memphis Tennessee, actor, model, and “Jookin” Gangsta Walking freestyle dancer, Charles “Lil Buck” Riley.
When Lil Buck pops in a pair of Apple AirPods, and hears the song “Down” by electronic duo Marian Hill, consisting of record producer Jeremy Lloyd and singer Samantha Gongol from Philadelphia, he becomes carried away with gravity defying, vertical, horizontal, and upside-down dance moves, on sidewalks, cars, city buildings, and a theatre marquee, without his AirPods falling out or missing a beat.
The dramatised, monochromatic depictions, of the magical power of music, to move one like never before, as witnessed by ‘Li Bucks’ expressive dance routines with the unbridled freedom of his Apple AirPods, are rewardingly engaging.