Apple Watch Series 6 ‘It Already Does That’

Amazon ‘Alexa’s Body’

Beats by Dre ‘You Love Me’

Nike ‘Better: Mamba Forever’

Nike ‘You Can’t Stop Us’

…while rapper Roddy Ricch and comedian Druski discuss their fave tracks—Future’s “March Madness” and Luke Combs’ “Forever After All”—in other spots from the campaign, developed by Translation and Even/Odd director Mohammad Gorjestani:

The stars name-check features such as active noise cancellation and transparency mode, while in the same breath insisting “It’s the Music”—and their deep connection to certain songs—that draws them to the product.

It’s an intuitive way of saying that Beats enhances the listening experience—a harmonious, heartfelt union of feels and technology.

“When it came to casting our talent for ‘It’s the Music,’ we wanted to widen the lens a bit from the prototypical athlete and artist that the brand would historically tap,” Translation executive creative director Jason Campbell tells Muse.

“In addition to sports stars and musicians, we sought up-and-coming dancers, gamers and comedians,” Campbell says. “This wide breadth of talent and passion points also helped us drive home the fact that our love of music spans borders, industries, races and ages—no matter who you are or what you do for a living.”

Upcoming installments feature athletes Eileen Gu, Jayson Tatum and Marcus Rashford, singers Arlo Parks and Coi Leray, comic Elsa Majimbo and TikTok dance icon Junebug, among others.

Spots will roll out across Beats’ Instagram, talent channels and the NBA playoffs. As part of the campaign, Druski bought up all the Beats Studio Buds at a Target in Atlanta, handing them out to fans.

 

 

 

 

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CREDITS

“It’s the Music”
Client: Beats by Dre
Agency: Translation

Edit: Edited by Parallax
Color: Dimitri Zola / MPC
Finishing: MPC
Mix: Ian Chase / Unbridled Sound
Footage Research: STALKR

Production Studio: Even/Odd
Director: Mohammad Gorjestani
Executive Producer: Malcolm Pullinger, Cayce Cole
Creative Director: Omid Fatemi
Cinematographer: Michael Cambio Fernandez
Photography: Mohammad Gorjestani
Head of Production: Taylor Feltner
Line Producer: Sheena Dolce

Translation
Founder/Chief Executive Officer: Steve Stoute
President: Ann Wool
Chief Marketing Officer: Chaucer Barnes
Executive Creative Director: Jason Campbell
Creative Lead: Castro Desroches
Creative Lead: Ray Smiling
Senior Art Director: Rachel Leathers
Senior Copywriter: Steve Horn
Art Director: Sara McLaws
Copywriter: Wilsynn Wheat
Head of Client Services: Susanna Swartley
Group Account Director: Alyssa Ramsey
Group Account Director: Sam Howard
Account Director: Chloe Williams
Account Executive: Jordyn Diato
Assistant Account Executive: Jordan Stanton
Executive Director of Engagement Planning: Joel Rodriguez
Director of Context Planning: Jay Legaspi
Senior Context Planner: Hugh Pringle
Junior Context Planner: Paige Rollins
Chief Strategy Officer : Sandi Preston
Strategy Director: Shon Mogharabi
Group Director, Data Strategy: Juli Profumo
Junior Data Strategist: Daniel Tan
Senior Producer: Alice Cottle
Director of Project Management: Matt DeSimone
Project Manager: Rikki Greenspan
Business Affairs Director: Sara Jagielski
Business Affairs Manager: Pavel Malchevski

Beats by Dre
CMO: Chris Thorne
Head of Brand: Grace Wong
Brand Director: Tom Kydd
Brand Manager: Ibukun Ibraheem
Global Creative Director: Diallo Marvel
Head of Corporate Communications: Sarah Joyce
Senior Project Manager: Jessica Lin
Executive Producer: Michael Refuerzo
Senior Producer: Eric Rasco
Producer: Sonia Pandya
Head of Music Marketing: Ed Alexander
Sports Marketing Manager: Aminah Charles

Last November, Beats by Dre released one of the most powerful ads ever made about the Black experience—a two-minute piece created by Translation that focused on the hypocrisy at the core of American culture: that the nation was built on the backs of Black people and shaped by Black culture, yet continues to devalue Black life.

The spot was crafted by an all-star roster of talent, including director Melina Matsoukas, cinematographer Malik Hassan Sayeed and writer Lena Waithe, with music by Solange Knowles. The commercial is beautifully executed in its craft, yet extremely direct in its question to the viewer: “You love Black culture, but do you love me?”

The piece won Grand Clios in both Film and Branded Entertainment & Content this year. In the video above, hear more about the project from Jason Campbell and Castro Desroches at Translation. And see the film itself below.

“You love Black culture … but do you love me?” There is so much vulnerability locked in that question, posed by narrator Tobe Nwigwe. It is direct and convicting—something that cuts through politics and fights, and forces you to look in its eyes.

In his treatment of the ad, Fast Company’s Jeff Beer cites a moment in Spike Lee’s 1989 film Do the Right Thing when a racist pizza guy called Pino tries to rationalize the difference between his love of Black celebrities and his disdain for Black people. “They’re Black, but they’re not really Black,” he says of his icons. “They’re more than Black. It’s different.”

Behind that statement are a lot of basic assumptions we can’t let rest on Pino’s shoulders alone: that Blackness is somehow bad, or inferior, and that when you’re Black and successful, there’s a certain desirability to the idea of somehow transcending Blackness.

That’s not an uncommon sentiment, however much we’d like to be better than that. To really understand where it comes from, it’s key to accept something critical: The United States isn’t a pure meritocracy, where a few people happened to draw generations of crap cards. It invented the concept of race, legislated it into reality, seeded it out into the world, and cultivated the infrastructure for a tacit caste system that remains with us to this day.

“The use of inherited physical characteristics to differentiate inner abilities and group value may be the cleverest way that a culture has ever devised to manage and maintain a caste system,” writes Isabel Wilkerson in Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.

Whiteness is at the top of our system, and Blackness at bottom. What makes you white or Black has been mindfully defined, and occasionally enjoys revision to suit the dominant caste. But the tenets of caste literally cast us in an exhausting, complex play: In addition to making ends meet, or achieving whatever ambitions we have, we struggle, at varying levels of visibility, to separate ourselves from caste’s lowest rung—at least psychologically—while ingratiating ourselves with its highest.

Of particular interest to “You Love Me” is how caste impacts entertainment. 

“Making enslaved people perform on command also reinforced their subjugation … Forced good cheer became a weapon of submission to assuage the guilt of the dominant caste and further humiliate the enslaved. If they were in chains and happy, how could anyone say that they were being mistreated?” Wilkerson writes. 

“African-Americans would later convert the performance role that they were forced to occupy—and the talent they built from it—into prominence in entertainment and in American culture disproportionate to their numbers … Even now, in a 2020 ranking of the richest African-Americans, 17 of the top 20—from Oprah Winfrey to Jay-Z to Michael Jordan—made their wealth as innovators, and then moguls, in the entertainment industry or in sports.” 

There’s a reason Pino cites Prince, Magic Johnson, and Eddie Murphy for his poisonous example: For generations, entertainment has been among the few areas Black people could dominate without severe social consequences. And while success is gratifying, there is a quiet sense, too, of knowing you are reinforcing caste norms, which tighten around you. 

This is why Colin Kaepernick, kneeling to protest police brutality, proved so explosive: It was a caste violation.

It is telling that “You Love Me” comes out on the heels of so much strife. The grief of Black Lives Matter, and every Black life lost with impunity this year, is a subtext that vibrates under our skin amid election news and rising Covid death tolls, which disproportionately affect minority communities. The ad goes on to unpack its first question with a tired frankness. And the entertainers we admire are portrayed not in all their spectacle, but as people in their own spaces—pensive, skeptical, staring you down.

“All men are created equal? That’s my favorite part,” Nwigwe smirks. “You hate us so deeply, but you’re still so impressed. Why can’t you see there’s history in our skin? You built this country on our backs.”

It is hard to watch the work without dealing with the question Pino himself can’t face: There is an inherent, cruel and violent hypocrisy to being able to love and consume Black culture, while sitting out the Black community’s oppression. 

“You love my culture … but do you love me? What a world that would be,” the ad concludes.

“You Love Me” represents Beats’ ambition to return to the culturally relevant advertising of its heyday. Since joining the brand in 2019, CMO Chris Thorne expressed a desire to resurrect that brand voice while focusing on Black communities.

“What Beats did early on is kind of unmatched, and that really is the goal, to get back to that powerful voice,” Thorne tells Fast Company. “I think there was a real opportunity for Beats to go back to its roots a little bit, have that powerful voice again, stand up for what it believes in, and really [have] the permission to be one of the strongest brand voices out there.”

Early this year, Beats created the Black Futures program, which connects students from historically Black colleges and universities with opportunities in filmmaking.

The footage at the beginning of the spot shows Zane Lowe interviewing Halsey on Beats 1 Radio. In that interview, she reflected on the rawness of the song. 

“That’s what I’m kind of getting at is it’s not protected by some character or some subplot,” she said. “It’s like this is really me talking about my life. It kind of gave me an existential crisis as an artist a little bit, because I’ve prided myself on being an artist who’s authentic and writes about her life and all that stuff. And then when I made this, I felt just how bad it hurt.” 

The spot was done in-house at Beats and directed by So Me through Iconoclast. 

Elsewhere on the list, Apple’s “Illusion” spot—which uses the track “Nothing Burns Like the Cold” by Snoh Aalegra featuring Vince Staples—fell to No. 5 after three weeks at No. 1. Ulta Beauty’s “The Possibilities Are Beautiful,” with Alessia Cara’s “Scars to Your Beautiful,” moves up from No. 2 to No. 1. 

Apple adds another spot to the list this week. Its “Better You” commercial for the Apple Watch comes in at No. 6 thanks to the track “Toy” by Young Fathers. 

See this week’s full list below. 

The 10 Most Shazam’d Ads of the Week: Oct. 15-22

❶ Ulta

Track: “Scars to Your Beautiful”
Artist: Alessia Cara
Agency: McCann New York

❷ Beats by Dre

Track: “Without Me”
Artist: Halsey
Agency: In-house

❸ Samsung

Track: Your Song
Artist: Rita Ora
Agency: Cheil Worldwide

❹ Bose + Amazon Alexa

Track: “Walkin’ Through”
Artist: Emilie Mover
Agency: Amazon D1 (in-house)

❺ Apple iPhone XS

Track: “Nothing Burns Like the Cold”
Artist: Snoh Aalegra Feat. Vince Staples
Agency: TBWAMedia Arts Lab

❻ Apple Watch

Track: “Toy”
Artist: Young Fathers
Agency: TBWAMedia Arts Lab

❼ Target

Track: “1, 2, 3”
Artist: Sofia Reyes Feat. Jason Derulo & De La Ghetto
Agency: Target Creative (in-house)

❽ Target

Track: “All the Ways”
Artist: Meghan Trainor
Agency: Target Creative (in-house)

❾ Amazon

Track: “Let’s Work Together”
Artist: Canned Heat
Agency: Lucky Generals

➓ EMI Records/Eric Church

Track: “Desperate Man”
Artist: Eric Church
Agency: N/A