In this anthem spot directed by Michel Gondry of Partizan for Altice’s Amplify speaker out of agency VMLY&R, puppetry and CGI help to bring a mundane home’s cast of characters to life (and a dance party). A clever parrot cues the Amplify speaker, which wakes up the entire house–from bobblehead baseball player dolls to the TV weatherwoman, picture album and chessboard.
As the house’s quirky inhabitants give a rendition of “Pump Up the Jam,” director Gondry’s distinctive style illustrates the imaginative possibilities that the smart speaker brings to an otherwise ordinary home.
The campaign is based on the insight that consumers care about enjoying the things they are connecting to, but they don’t want to have to think about the technology that gets them there. Altice creates experiences so simple and immersive, they bring everything around you to life.
For this launch spot titled "Happy Home," Altice and VMLY&R reworked this version of Pump up the Jam by Technotronic with Squeak E. Clean Studios’ executive creative director Sam Spiegel.
Credits
Client Altice Agency VMLY&R Jason Xenopoulos, NY CEO/North America chief creative officer; João Coutinho, North America executive creative director; Felipe Pavani, Pieter Melief, creative directors; Sam Saunders, copywriter; Roberto Baibich, art director; Daniel Maughan, producer (Middle Mile); Theresa Notartomaso, music producer. Production Partizan Michel Gondry, director; Molly Griffin, exec producer/head of production; Lisa Tauscher, managing director/exec producer; Raffi Adlan, producer. Postproduction Cosmo Street Tom Scherma, Tessa Davis, editors. Music Publishing courtesy of Universal Music Publishing Group. (“Pump up the Jam” by Technotronic) Original Music Squeak E. Clean Studios Sam Spiegel, executive creative director; Rob Barbato, creative director; Danielle Toporoff, sr. producer; Elliot Glasser, composer. VFX The Mill Andrew Sommerville, exec producer; Heino Henning, sr. producer; Corey Brown, creative director; Keith Sullivan, 2D lead; Yong Chan Kim, Rune Mansson, CG leads; Fergus McCall, colorist.
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
