A Week in Creative: BBC's burning billboard and Apple's mythical beast
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Apple enlists director Lulu Wang to remotely create ‘Nian’ film for Chinese New Year
Welcome to ’A Week in Creative’, a handpicked selection of the most interesting campaigns to come out of The Drum’s Creative Works in the past week. If this list doesn’t quench your creative thirst, then please visit our ’A Week in Creative’ hub.
Alexa gets a makeover
Marking his Super Bowl debut, actor Michael B. Jordan has a new role - playing the character of Amazon's Alexa.
‘Alexa's Body’ opens in an office space, as employees marvel at the slick design of Amazon's voice assistant. “I literally couldn't think of a more beautiful vessel for Alexa to be...” trails off one woman, as her attention gets caught by a bus outside, promoting Jordan's new film.
Lost in her own imagination, the employee starts envisaging a variety of romantic settings, where Jordan acts as Alexa, much to her husband's distress.
A perfect planet?
To continue the climate conversation Sir David Attenborough started in the finale of his series ‘A Perfect Planet’ this weekend, BBC Creative hijacked its own billboards to demonstrate how humans are a destructive force on the planet.
The stunt saw the original promo billboards seemingly ripped apart to expose the destruction beneath that threatens the 'perfect planet' we live in. In one site, the BBC applied a smoke machine that made it seem like the wildfires were actually burning.
Chinese Nian Year
This Chinese New Year, Apple has worked with Lulu Wang on a fantastical spot that tells the tale of a young girl and a mythical beast called Nian.
Continuing Apple's strategy of telling a well-crafted story, using just its iPhone to film, the 12-minute story follows the girl as she faces up to the monster, finally befriending the beast.
Red Nose Day returns
With Red Nose Day just around the corner (19 March) Dame Judi Dench is here with a poignant message about “what is it to be human”. A lighthearted take on the classic manifesto film, with a twist, Dench goes on to remind us all that in spite of our differences there is one thing that unites us – a vacuum to Benedict Cumberbatch’s face.
This is just the tip of the iceberg, so if this dose of creativity leaves you thirsty for more, please drop in at The Drum’s Creative Works – the home of creative from all around the globe. You can also subscribe to The Drum’s creative newsletter or browse our round-up here.