This spot which launched last night with a high-profile placement during the MTV Video Music Awards marked the start of a relationship between State Farm and Lorne Michaels’ media and entertainment company, Broadway Video Entertainment (BVE), and its Saturday Night Live properties as SNL celebrates its 40-year anniversary.
The campaign features SNL characters such as Hans & Franz (Kevin Nealon and Dana Carvey) and Richmeister (Rob Schneider). It’s been 20 years since these iconic characters have come out of the SNL vault. Richmeister is featured in “Steve’s Kid” which was directed by Hank Perlman of Hungry Man for DDB Chicago.
Credits
Client State Farm Agency DDB Chicago John Maxham, chief creative officer; Barry Burdiak, John Hayes, group creative directors; Joe Cianciotto, chief digital officer; Gustavo de Mello, group strategy director; Penn French, group business director; Diane Jackson, director of production; Scott Kemper, executive producer; Luke LiManni, producer; Kurt Riemersma, Mike Porritt, Andrew Bloom, creative directors/art directors; Matt Ben Zeev, Frank Oles, Nathan Monteith, creative director/copywriters; Chris Bruney, art director; Nick Novich, copywriter. Production Hungry Man Hank Perlman, director. Editorial Cutters Matt Walsh, editor; Craig Duncan, exec producer; Patrick Casey, producer. Post/VFX Filmworkers Club Michael Masur, colorist; Rob Churchill, Daniel Pernikoff, Michael Anderson, visual effects artists; Derek de Board, exec producer; Casey Swircz, producer.
Apple’s holiday ad--“Heartstrings,” launched ahead of International Day of Persons with Disabilities--introduces us to a father with mild-moderate hearing loss. But thanks to the clinical grade Hearing Aid feature on AirPods Pro 2, he can now hear his daughter playing the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young classic “Our House” on her new guitar, just unwrapped on Christmas morning.
The breakthrough ability to hear clearly is all the more impactful in that it comes after we journey with the dad down memory lane as he recalls his daughter’s first guitar, her birthday, her first day of school--though the sound of his flashbacks is muffled. But once he activates the Hearing Aid feature, dad can properly hear his daughter in the present--and with that even the memories can be heard clearly.
“Heartstrings” was directed by Henry-Alex Rubin of production house SMUGGLER for TBWAMedia Arts Lab Los Angeles, with sound design by three-time Oscar winner Paul N.J. Ottoson who helps us experience the father’s hearing loss and then its restoration. (Ottoson won two Oscars for The Hurt Locker--for best sound mixing and best sound mixing--and another for best sound editing for Zero Dark Thirty.) Read More
