US poet Maya Angelou celebrates difference and unity in Apple’s ‘Human Family’ Olympic Games ambush campaign that celebrates the ‘more alike, my friends, than unalike’ theme.
The initiative, part of Apple’s ongoing global ‘Shot on iPhone’ campaign,
Developed with agency TBWA\Media Arts Lab, ‘The Human Family’ is built around a film featuring Angelou narrating her poem of the same title.
It’s structure, like previous Shot On iPhone creative is structurally simple: a montage of customer shot photos and films on a plain white background.
The imagery spans various friendly faces and families – spanning the ethnicities, ages and orientations – which flick passed along with the credit of each iPhone customer photographer.
All the while, the late Angelou reads her poem in the background.
The ad doesn’t feature the full text of Dr Maya Angelou’s poem, but closes with the lines:
“I note the obvious differences
between each sort and type,
but we are more alike, my friends,
than we are unalike.”
The spot launches as a TV commercial in the USA during NBC’s delayed coverage of the Rio Opening Ceremony.
It also runs across Apple’s social media channels and on its website, upon which a full microsite is devoted to the ongoing, multi-phase “Shot on iPhone” campaign.
Comment
The message is simple and the Olympic synergy is clear: after all, despite the drug scandals, financial and ecology arguments and political intrigue, the games are positioned as a global event celebrating unity.
This piece of creative certainly elegantly connects emotionally and communicates by embracing difference and unity in true Apple minimalist style.
Perhaps Apple’s aim is that its messaging, positioning and values can offer some hope in a current global climate (especially in the USA) that seems dominated by a lack of trust, and plenty of enmity, anger and fear.
With 288,691 views on the Apple’s YouTube channel in its first week, the ad has some traction and is also garnering some praise on Twitter (some members of the public noting Apple’s broader diversity push under chief executive Tim Cook (who is openly gay).
The campaign continues creatively from where its Euro 2016 ‘Beautiful Game’ shot on iPhone activation left off last month (see case study).
Links
Apple YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/user/Apple
Apple Web:
