For the seventh straight year, Apple has found a place in the primetime commercial Emmy nominees’ circle. Actually this marks the fifth of those years in which Apple has scored at least two nods.
This time around, Apple received nominations for: “Album Cover,” from Apple’s in-house creatives and directed by David Shane of O Positive; and “Fuzzy Feelings” out of TBWA\Media Arts Lab and directed by Lucia Aniello via Hungry Man in tandem with stop-motion animator Anna Mantzaris of Passion Pictures.
“Album Cover” features a threesome with distinctly different views of what their album cover should look like–conveyed with the photo/portraiture capabilities of the iPhone 15. Meanwhile the yuletide piece “Fuzzy Feelings” introduces us to an office worker by day and stop-motion artist by night. As an employee, she works for a boss whom she’s grown to hate. So at night, her stop-motion creations put him in dire straits. The young woman makes her stop-motion fare by deploying the iPhone 15 Pro camera and a MacBook Air with M2 to edit it. However, when work takes a turn and she starts to see her boss in another light, so too do her stop-motion endeavors as we see the value of working towards a kinder world, and what better time to start than during the holiday season?
Earlier this year, Apple won the primetime commercial Emmy for “The Greatest.”
Like Apple, “Fuzzy Feelings” director Aniello is no stranger to the Emmy proceedings. As co-creator of the HBO Max series Hacks, she has won two Emmys (writing and directing) as well as a DGA Award.
While Apple garnered two Emmy nods this year, that tally was surpassed by O Positive which scored three. In addition to “Album Cover,” O Positive was the production company on the spots “Best Friends” for Uber One | Uber Eats from ad agency Mother; and State Farm’s “Like A Good Neighbaaa” from agency Highdive.
Shane directed “Best Friends,” part of a U.K. campaign starring iconic actor Robert De Niro and Sex Education star, Asa Butterfield. The piece features De Niro and Butterfield forming an unlikely friendship after bonding over their uniquely shared passion for eating food and going places. We see the two stars bonding while getting Uber rides around London and enjoying dishes from Uber Eats.
O Positive’s Jim Jenkins helmed “Like A Good Neighbaaa” in which Arnold Schwarzenegger is cast to play Agent State Farm in Agent State Farm The Movie. There’s just one catch, he can’t quite nail the pronunciation of the slogan–until his sidekick Danny DeVito steps in.
Rounding out this year’s crop of Emmy-nominations in the Commercials category are: “Michael CeraVe” for CeraVe Moisturizing Cream directed by Tim & Eric (Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim) of PRETTYBIRD for agency Ogilvy; and Sandy Hook Promise’s “Just Joking” directed by Henry-Alex Rubin of SMUGGLER for BBDO New York..
The former played up a tongue-in-cheek connection between actor Michael Cera and his moisturizing creme, generating plenty of buzz culminating in a Super Bowl ad.
And the Sandy Hook Promise PSA features a lineup of comedians–including Billy Eichner, Wanda Sykes, Margaret Cho, Jay Pharoah, Roy Wood Jr., Caitlin Reilly, David Cross, Iliza Shlesinger and Rachel Bloom–who lend their wit to deliver a sobering message: Threats are not jokes. If you see a warning sign of violence, always say something.
In the PSA, audience members assume that comedians are performing regular stand-up routines and “Just Joking.” However, it is later revealed that what the audience thought were punchlines were actually all real threats made by school shooters across the country – including the shooter at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, TX who said “I’m going to shoot up an elementary school right now,” and the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooter in Parkland, FL, who said “I want to kill people,” and several more across the country. The chilling realization that these comedians were not “Just Joking” wakes viewers up to the importance of taking all threats seriously and taking action when there are warning signs of violence.
Here’s this year’s list of nominees in the Emmy Awards’ Outstanding Commercial category:
Outstanding Commercial
“Album Cover” – Apple iPhone 15
O Positive, Production Company
Apple, Ad Agency
“Best Friends” – Uber One | Uber Eats O Positive, Production Company
Mother, Ad Agency
“Fuzzy Feelings” – Apple – iPhone + Mac
Hungry Man, Production Company
TBWA Media Arts Lab, Ad Agency
“Just Joking” – Sandy Hook Promise
SMUGGLER, Production Company
BBDO New York, Ad Agency
“Like A Good Neighbaaa” – State Farm
O Positive, Production Company
Highdive, Ad Agency
“Michael CeraVe” – CeraVe Moisturizing Cream
PRETTYBIRD, Production Company
Ogilvy PR, Ad Agency
The winner of the primetime commercial Emmy will be revealed and honored during the Creative Arts Emmy proceedings which are currently slated for the weekend of September 7 and 8.
