YouTube's Music Ads Capture Those Very Private Soundtrack Moments

YouTube is promoting its YouTube music service with a series of spots that capture those private moments where a soundtrack takes us into a different world. While that's not so different from ads for rival music services like Apple and Spotify, these ads center on a very diverse group of people -- perhaps the most powerful spot, seen here, features Alex, a seemingly ordinary teenage boy finishing up his fast-food work shift and heading home to his bedroom, where music (Club Now Skunk by Elliphant) unleashes another side of him altogether. There's also Tina, who finishes up community service and walks out to find her family to a reggae soundtrack (Walshy Fire's "Machet -- Naturally"); Jaysn, an Asian kid who listens to Korean hip-hop (Eung Freestyle) on his subway commute and feels badass enough to act cool in front of some older kids; Kristen, who indulges in some private weeping on a plane while putting on James Blake's "I Need a Forest Fire," and the very confident Afsa, a Hijab-wearing Muslim student who recites "Alphabet Aerobics" by Blackalicious as she strides through her school. All the spots end with the words: "It's not just what we listen to. It's who we are." The ads were created by Anomaly, and were all directed by Lance Acord of Park Pictures (whose work includes Apple's "The Song," another moving music-based spot, as well as this year's NFL Super Bowl Babies Choir).

YouTube's Music Ads Capture Those Very Private Soundtrack Moments

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