While Apple recently announced that it will be taking more of its ads in house, this latest iPhone spot comes from TBWA Media Arts Lab, and features a rather unusual song selection.
The 60-second spot, entitled “Strength,” is a relatively straightforward montage promoting the use of the iPhone 5S for physical fitness. Less straightforward, however, is the spot’s soundtrack. As Adweek reports, “Strength” is set to “The Youth Fitness Song” (also called “Chicken Fat”), which originally appeared as a song from President Kennedy’s national physical fitness program. The song, which was written by Meredith Wilson and performed by Robert Preston in 1961, was distributed to schools and played as an accompaniment to a morning calisthenics routine. Whether the song is meant to stoke Baby Boomer nostalgia or someone on board just thought it would be a fun bit of silliness, “Go, you chicken fat, go” is a pretty strange way to tell people to start exercising (while utilizing their iPhone 5S). Coming on the heels of the recent spot featuring “Gigantic,” it marks something of a trend in unorthodox song selections promoting the 5S.