Learn how marketers can unlock the power of Audio to drive impact at Adweek Crack the Code: Audio's Next Play, October 5. Register for free.
Olivia Rodrigo’s latest music video was shot entirely on the new iPhone 15 Pro, with Apple’s creative agency quickly dropping behind-the-scenes footage and content snippets from the shoot as commercials for the product.
TBWA/Media Arts Lab launched the ads on Instagram and YouTube moments after the introduction of the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max on Tuesday at Apple’s annual September gathering in Cupertino, California.
The Grammy-winning Rodrigo, who was among the scheduled performers on Tuesday night’s MTV Video Music Awards, is promoting her new record “GUTS” and its single “Get Him Back.” She collaborated with Apple, along with director Jack Begert and director of photography Xiao “X” Liu, on the full-length music video for the revenge-themed song.
Media Arts Lab aimed to “reinforce the cinematic power” of the iPhone 15 Pro by giving viewers a sneak peek into the video-making process.
Like a long line of Apple ads before it, the work weaves the product’s various features into a piece of entertainment. A recent campaign shot in Mexico pays homage to the flamboyant pro wrestling phenomenon called Lucha Libre, while another tugs at the heartstrings with a story of dogs and prosthetics (made possible in part by the iPhone 14 Pro’s TrueDepth camera and LiDAR Scanner).
For the Olivia Rodrigo collaboration, the digital ads show off the phone’s seven camera lenses, 4K recording, visual effects and color grading capabilities. It’s the first smartphone in the world that supports the Academy Color Encoding System used in major movie productions, per the company.
The 30-second ad with the wordy title—“Shot on iPhone 15 Pro, Olivia Rodrigo, ‘Get Him Back!’—captures some of the action of the music video, including Rodrigo and her angry clones keying cars, trashing houses and smashing windows. It’s airing on YouTube.
Apple has partnered with Rodrigo in the past for the 20-year-old singer-actress’ “Brutal” music video in 2021, which was edited on the iPad. At the time, she made a series of videos showing her fans how to use an iPad app to create TikTok filters.
Meanwhile, back at headquarters
Separately at Apple’s press event Tuesday, the company debuted two other films showing off its products and environmental progress.
The standout film, directed by Rhys Thomas, casts Octavia Spencer as Mother Nature. She sweeps into Apple’s headquarters for a status report on the tech giant’s promise to bring its carbon footprint to net zero by 2030.
The second spot follows survivors who “get to celebrate a birthday they never thought they’d have,” per the brand. The emotional portrait is also a product demo, as it reveals that each of the survivors was helped by an iPhone feature such as Emergency SOS via satellite and Crash Detection.