Apple’s “Relax, It’s iPhone” campaign returned with an epic cyclist vs. magpie showdown.
Amid all the useful mediums that advertising has expanded into in recent decades, film remains the old standby—still among the quickest routes to generating emotion, from laughter to awe. This week’s Top 5 is all film-based, from comedies to musicals, from action shorts to bittersweet meditations—all executed wonderfully.
Check out our Top 5 campaigns of the week below.
It’s questionable whether making people feel guilty really changes their behavior, but if you’re going to go there, at least do it creatively. The latest campaign from plant-based food company NotCo takes an idea that isn’t particularly new—that the happy animals on food company logos aren’t, in real life, actually so happy—and brings fresh energy to it. The musical spot is entertaining throughout, and it’s backed by a clever digital component where you can scan such logos in real life and get bonus musical content in return.
Yes, yes, the Calvin Klein campaign with Jeremy Allen White is pretty played out—but we had to recognize this parody spot for German brewer BRLO because it’s just so damn likable. Big dudes in underwear has a distinguished history in advertising, and BRLO’s swaggering redhead makes a memorable addition to the canon. The product tie-in is a little flimsy, sure, but it’s more of a brand play anyway when you give people something this entertaining.
Tapping into accomplished creators such as Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson does a few things for a brand—it guarantees strong content, plus it brings in their existing fan base. The only danger is overshadowing the product—but that’s quickly sidestepped in this funny short film by having the “Broad City” actresses talk pretty much exclusively about poop and weaving in MiraLAX along the way. The client trusted the pair completely, having them develop everything from the script on down, and the quality shows.
A lot of companies say they care about people, but it’s more believable when they can make you feel it in their advertising. Amica’s 90-second spot, directed by Diego Contreras of Love Song, is a well-crafted meditation on loneliness and isolation in our modern age—that does a 180 at the end to communicate the insurance company’s empathetic touch. Emphasizing one’s humanity is a wise move for many brands in our increasingly alienating digital world. And a beautiful piece like this can really distinguish Amica from its competitors, putting a stake in the ground in a category largely dominated by humor.
“Relax, It’s iPhone” has always been a fun campaign. Since its 2021 debut, it’s served as a kind of overarching brand campaign for Apple’s signature device—framing it as the smartphone that brings peace of mind, along with (and thanks to) lots of cool features. We got three new “Relax, It’s iPhone” spots this week. Along with two from the U.S., it was this Australian spot that really caught our eye. Our heroine’s tussle with a truculent magpie lends epic cinematic tension from the very first frames. The action is intense, the cinematography is great, and the iPhone’s unlikely survival—completely unscathed—at the end brings sweet relief. Our favorite advertising chase scene in a while, this is yet another triumph in a campaign that’s seen many of them.
