Creative Director’s Choice: Tony Zimney from M/H VCCP on Apple’s Elvis impersonators
Creative Director’s Choice gives creative directors a chance to highlight the work they think is the best out in the ad world — the ads and campaigns they believe are making a difference.
Apple's Facetime ad with Elvis impersonators
This week, Tony Zimney, creative director at M/H VCCP, on Apple’s catchy Facetime ad featuring a bevy of Elvis impersonators.
How hard is it to shoot a product demo and end up with a piece of film that’s worth viewing in a theater? Just ask anyone who’s tried. And yet Apple continues its wildly impressive creative streak with another magical spot featuring a series of singing Elvis impersonators to show off the latest evolution of Facetime — the new group chat feature.
Apple has created a lot of great product demo commercials over the past year. The beautifully shot iPad series directed by Sacred Egg featuring the iPad as an escape are a perfect example of how to cut through in the quick content world we find ourselves in. But they’ve also been brave enough to deliver deep and rich stories for us to gobble up.
Titled ‘A Little Company,’ this spot travels the globe to show how a bunch Elvis impersonators stay connected even when they’re miles apart. It’s the third time director Dougal Wilson has teamed up with Apple, and he and the production crew at Furlined do not disappoint.
What’s not to love? It’s got a catchy Elvis song, There’s Always Me, and each Elvis wardrobe is stylized to perfection. The set design alone is worth watching again and again with its rich attention to detail. Look for tiny Easter eggs like the televisions sets in the background playing clips of the King along with memorabilia harkening back to album titles, like the Elvis Presley Boulevard sign. One impersonator, who’s stranded at a bus stop, even leans his iPhone up against a Nesbitt's orange soda. The transitions between scenes are wonderful to watch as the camera elegantly pushes in and out from each vignette to deepen the emotional connection.
Just a simple product demo.
Watching Apple take its rightful place as creative leaders over the past year has been a delight. Creatively, the company has been on point, unbelievably consistent in its storytelling. If you take a look at the entire body of work, you’ll even notice there’s a subtle color pass uniting the look and feel.
Yep, when it comes to creative right now, Apple is king.
Tony Zimney is creative director at M/H VCCP.
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