The Super Bowl Halftime Show is always an epic event, and this year, Apple Music gives it an epic promo to match—a star-studded, seven-minute short film in which friends of Sunday’s featured performer, Usher, scour Las Vegas looking for him after he goes “missing.”
Apple Music searches for Usher in 7-minute ad for Super Bowl Halftime Show
Ludacris, Taraji P. Henson, Lil Jon—the trio seen in a teaser for the film that broke Wednesday—are joined by Criss Angel, Anderson .Paak, Wesley Snipes, J Balvin and an assorted crew of other characters in the colorful short film, made in-house and directed by David Gordon Green.
The search for the “halftime no-show” plays out entertainingly, “Hangover” style, with a particularly amusing subplot involving the Blue Man Group, the avant-garde performers who are wordlessly angling to replace Usher on the big day.
Tor Myhren, VP of marketing communications at Apple, told Ad Age that there is no “one size fits all” approach to marketing the halftime show—every artist is different, and so each year’s campaign has to capture what makes them unique, while making sure Apple’s deep DNA in music comes through loud and clear.
“Last year we did five films in five days leading into Rihanna’s show, and each used one of her hit songs,” he said. “With Usher, we wanted to do one big film that reminds everyone about his entire collection—30 years of hits. So there are 14 different Usher tracks that drive this story. Some are original recordings, some—like ‘Confessions’—are loungey Vegas remakes we created for the film. It’s a wild ride, and Usher’s music carries it.”
Those tracks are “U Got It Bad,” “Confessions Part II,” “Confessions (Interlude),” “Climax,” “Bad Girl,” “Good Good,” “U Make Me Wanna,” “Nice & Slow,” “Can U Help Me,” “Burn” and “Yeah!”—along with Usher’s remix of JungKook’s “Standing Next to You,” as well as David Guetta’s “Without You” and J Balvin’s “Dientes” (two songs on which Usher is a featured singer).
In terms of the tone of the film, Myhren said the main vibe they wanted to get across was fun-loving.
“Usher is a performer, and his shows are fun. He doesn’t take himself too seriously, neither does this film,” he said. “When you go to an Usher show, it’s gonna be wild and fun and it’s kinda hard not to have a good time. We wanted you to feel that in this film. So we kept it loose, and just let the story unfold in a funny, unexpected way.”
The film will run on Apple’s channels. There is no paid media buy behind it.
“Where’s Usher” follows a more traditional minute-long trailer-style spot for the Halftime Show that broke several weeks ago. That spot hyped Usher’s forthcoming appearance as “One performance. 30 years in the making.”