Creative Director’s Choice: Quirk Creative’s Gaelan Draper on Apple’s ‘Bounce’ ad
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 Bounce ad for AirPods
This week, Gaelan Draper, co-founder and creative director of Quirk Creative, talks about the “cool and mystery” conveyed by Apple’s ‘Bounce’ ad for its AirPods.
I know that I’m far from the first creative director to rhapsodize over the latest Apple spot, nor will I be the last. Their creative is effortless, unassailable cool – and I say this as someone who has used Androids my whole life. We should look at these spots as a masterclass in marrying storytelling, theme, concept and confidence.
The concept is spot-on simple. In a world where life is hard, technology frees a man from the hardship. It’s the perfect visual representation of the promise of Silicon Valley, where the latest product can truly transform you and the world around you – a world where the latest product can make a difficult world fun again.
I’m a sucker for the “aha close,” where a scripted line seamlessly segues into the concept, and makes it feel inevitable and natural. So it is here, where the freedom and lack of hardness of the new AirPods are visualized by a series of breathtaking, practical effects. A mattress serves as a trampoline, a light post bends, even the very walls and sidewalks serve to jump the actor across the cinematic world. The creative team ran with the concept and found new ways to put spins on altering the world, so each visual ‘gag’ felt fresh, surprising and unified.
While advertising typically over-explains, ‘Bounce’ retains a sense of cool and mystery. I admire the discipline it took to trust the visuals and the audience enough to wait 14 seconds to show the product. The scenes convey a visual magic that makes me race to the internet to see how they did that (short version: they built a town in an airplane hanger six feet off the ground to allow for a lot of trampolines).
I want to know how an obscure track that artist Tessellated recorded in college was selected to be the anthem of this multi-million-dollar endeavor. I want to know more. I want the new AirPods. And, most importantly, I want to go out into the world and ensure my next work strives toward a similar level of discipline, excellence and wonder.
Gaelan Draper is co-founder and creative director of Brooklyn-based creative agency Quirk Creative.
See the work by clicking 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 be featured in our Creative Director’s Choice, please contact Kyle O’Brien.
