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Creative Director's Choice: Office of Baby’s Nathan Frank on AGM’s Chinese smart phone ad

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By Kyle O'Brien, Creative Works Editor

March 29, 2018 | 4 min read

Creative Director’s Choice gives creative directors a chance to highlight the current work they think is the best out in the ad world – the ads and campaigns they believe are making a difference.

AGM X2

AGM X2 smartphone ad from China is this week's Creative Director's Choice

This week, Office of Baby co-founder and creative director Nathan Frank states why he thinks a Chinese ad for the rugged AGM X2 smartphone is better than most western ads. In it, a woman loses her husband during an operation, but through the magic of technology, he is still alive through the AGM X2 smartphone.

Nathan Frank

If you want further proof that the best creative work in the world is not being made in the English language, here it is – an ad for a rugged smartphone that is better than most advertisements, most movies, and even most Shakespearean dramas.

First, there is a tragedy. We don’t see what happened. It occurs off screen. We are left to wonder who? How? Where? Why? A grieving widow waits in a hospital hallway for resolution. Suddenly, the tone changes. Her husband has survived, but his body has not. His brain, and his consciousness along with it, has been transferred to a smartphone. The poor woman has only just begun to adjust to her new reality with a digitized husband when a careless passerby knocks the phone out of her hands and into a river. And so the story goes.

If you are not the creatives behind this ad, you should be ashamed of yourself. In fact, we should all be ashamed of ourselves. In the space of 90 seconds, the space that most filmmakers waste on some gently swaying beach grass, and most advertising creatives waste on a product demo and maybe a dance routine, these creatives have made an emotional science fiction saga. It's one that surprises and devastates you, dashes your dreams, and then brings them back to life, all while managing to demonstrate the AGM X2 IP68’s product attributes clearly and compellingly.

I’m not sure where I would rather live, a reality where consciousness has been digitally preserved so that the deceased can live forever on smartphones, or a reality where clients and consumers support this kind of work. Each is equally alluring.

Nathan Frank is co-founder and creative director at New York independent creative agency Office of Baby.

To view the video, click on the Creative Works box below.

To see the latest creative ads and campaigns, visit The Drum’s Creative Works section. If you or your creative director would like to feature in our Creative Director’s Choice, please contact Kyle O’Brien at kyle.obrien@thedrum.com.

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