The last iPod Commercial: "Share the Fun"
The first and last commercials in a defining era in music marketing.
"Share the Fun" wasn't my first involvement with an iPod advertisement. In 2005, I submitted a storyboard to James Vincent, then president of Media Arts Lab and a personal friend, proposing an update to the existing silhouette campaign. My idea was to introduce more immersive designs and personalized graphics, closely aligned with the creative motivations in music. At the time, iPod silhouette commercials were characterized by flat, colored backgrounds, silhouetted dancing figures, and a kicking soundtrack. I could see that this would get old and this campaign needed to evolve. My proposal aimed to refresh this concept. With my background in design and post-production, paired with the kind of work I was doing for brands like Nintendo in augmenting reality with design and CGI, I believed I was the right person to direct this new series of commercials, which were inspired by my love for album art, music, Apple, and the work of British photographer Nick Knight.
2005 Illustrations for the next generation of iPod Silhouette
Months after I submitted my designs, I received an email from James thanking me and apologizing for the quite blatant adaptation of my ideas into the new silhouette campaigns. While I was pleased to have influenced the direction of the brand, I was disappointed not to have been the one to direct these commercials.
Ultimately, and five years later, I was hired by Media Arts Lab as a Creative Director, where I spent three accomplished years working with and learning from some of the best talent in marketing.
I got to produce my iPod spot.
The brief came before the Christmas holidays in 2011, with a product that was pretty much an iPhone without the phone. A perfect entry-level product for families that weren't ready to give over their children to the iPhone. This was the last commercial made for the iPod. The iPod touch, handing the baton to the iPhone.
The idea was to show kids interacting with one another in an authentic way, with the only abstraction being the subtraction of the real world. We would have our cast in the white world that Apple had come to own at this point. We’d play around with their movement, the product demo, and some clever camera trickery to make some engaging and informing content.
"Share the Fun" followed a tradition of Apple advertising with simple shapes and paired down narratives where the focus was on product feature and demonstration. The spot showed a range of connected applications from games to texting, FaceTime, to music sharing. It was essentially an entertaining demonstration of the product's capability. The gap advertising of the mid '90s was always a big impression on Apple; this campaign did not break from that.
This was one of the most epic shoots I have ever been on as we took over one of the largest stages in Sony Studios Los Angeles. The Director was one of my heroes and someone I had admired since I was a schoolboy: Mark Romanek. The Director of Photography was the late Harris Savides. Apple never shied away from production value so we got the budget, cast, and crew to make this a stunner. Music has always been such a huge part of Apple DNA and Media Arts Lab. We invested heavily in the talent to bring us the very best music of our time. Buzzy Cohen was the guy that brought us this track and so many more.
Grouplove and their song "Tongue Tied" drove the commercial. Good music makes people stop and look up; Apple knows this and makes the investment. We broke so many bands into the mainstream, but those bands made Apple cool and our messaging stick out in the crowd.
This commercial won AdWeek’s ad of the day, one of eight I was awarded for my work on Apple. TBWA\Media Arts Lab won Agency of the Year in 2011 at the 60th International ANDY Awards, which recognizes creative excellence in advertising. The agency also won 10 Golds across eight different campaigns, and Apple was named "Brand of the Year." The three years I spent working on Apple were transformative for the brand and for my understanding of the power of creative and engaging marketing in the world.
