Apple Inc, the tech company which splits opinion more than Marmite, is once again bigging up its creative credentials with the launch of the latest spot in its long running “Behind the Mac” series, this time celebrating UK-based innovations with a campaign starring some of the nation’s “brightest stars”.
Devised by TBWA\Media Arts Lab London and set to Imagination by Labrinth, “Made in the UK” visits some famous faces from Lewisham to Glasgow and Brighton to Bristol to give a snapshot of British talent and their Macs.
And they come thick and fast, with Bafta-winning screenwriter and actor Michaela Coel, Game of Thrones star Maise Williams, Turner Prize winner Grayson Perry, Mercury Prize rapper Dave, British Vogue editor-in-chief Edward Enninful, photographers Ewen Spencer and Vicky Grout, designers Lev Tanju and Samuel Ross, artist Jenn Nkiru and Bristolian animation studio Aardman the latest to show the love.
The spot will be supported by an out-of-home campaign that pairs famous pieces of work from across the UK with the places they were made, as well as activity across Snapchat, TikTok and Twitter. Media planning and buying has been handled by OMD.
Previous campaigns have featured Paul McCartney, David Bowie, Gorillaz and Mark Ronson in a similar blink and you’ll miss me black and white style.
Launched in 2018, Apple says the goal of the Behind the Mac campaign is to highlight how users continue to “push the boundaries of creativity and innovation” with the Mac platform, highlighting real stories of people using the Mac to solve problems, create music, and more.
So, what is the consensus around the “Mac-free zone” of the Decision Marketing office?
Will we be rushing out to get the latest Mac Pro, a snip at $53,799, complete with 28-Core, 2.5GHz Intel Xeon, 1.5TB of 2933MHz RAM, 8TB of SSD storage, two AMD Radeon Pro Vega II Duo graphics card modules, and Afterburner accelerator card?
Will the fact that every creative in the world bar us seems to have one finally send us down to the Apple Store?
Well, not with this decidedly lazy showing it won’t. Now, don’t get us wrong, in a previous life we did work on a Mac because Apple had the publishing monopoly and our employer had little choice.
But it will take more than a few black and white shots of “stars” with a Google searched soundtrack – pushing the boundaries of creativity and innovation about as much as a slab of lard – to convince us to spend our own cash. No doubt some wag will argue that a 16oz tub of Armour is creativity at its finest and that we’re just not creative enough to get it. Bah!
In fact, you could probably replace the Macs in virtually every shot with a tub of lard and it wouldn’t make the blind bit of difference. After all, it looks like Maise Williams’ Mac has crashed, Grayson Perry isn’t even using his, and Jenn Nkiru appears to be just about to chuck her’s on the floor.
Where is the imagination? Where is the story? Where is the innovation?
Decision Marketing Adometer: A very unimaginative 5 out of 10
