TBWA\Chiat\Day, the ad agency renowned for its creatively disruptive campaigns for Apple (most famously its classic “1984” ad), Levi’s, Gatorade, Energizer, The Recording Academy and Nissan, to name just a few, will be inducted into the Association of Music Producers’ Hall of Fame at the 2026 AMP Awards for Music & Sound, taking place on Wednesday, May 20 at Sony Hall.
Part of TBWA\Worldwide: The Disruption® Company, TBWA\Chiat\Day, which has offices in New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, and Nashville, has roots dating back to 1968, when Jay Chiat and Guy Day first came together to form the Los Angeles-based Chiat\Day. Under the leadership of then creative director Lee Clow, who joined in 1971, the agency went on to set the industry’s creative benchmark to this day.
TBWA, part of Omnicom Group Inc., continues to create disruptive ideas that defy convention and compete with culture, giving brands an unfair share of the future. The collective spans 34 countries and includes agency brands such as Auditoire, LOLA, eg+ worldwide, GMR, TBWA\Media Arts Lab, TBWA\WorldHealth, and adam&eve\TBWA. Global clients include adidas, Apple, Gatorade, Hilton Hotels, McDonald’s, Nissan, Mars, and Singapore Airlines.
Expanding AMP’s Hall of Fame to once again include agencies–last year, AMP inducted Wieden+Kennedy–reflects their singular power and influence in driving cultural conversations through music and sound across every brand the agency touches. TBWA\Chiat\Day stands apart as one of the few agencies that’s consistently found innovative ways to use music and sound to enhance a brand message and push their creative partners to craft something memorable.
Matt Nelson, AMP national president and managing director of Storefront Music, New York, said honoring TBWA\Chiat\Day recognizes that the agency’s creative reputation has been built on creative disruption and that certainly includes its innovative use of music and sound for decades.
“The advertising music industry widely acknowledges TBWA\Chiat\Day for its longstanding faith and support, and for challenging their clients, as well as those lucky creative partners, to achieve greater and greater impact through their use of music,” said Nelson. “As discriminating juries at literally every major advertising award show have shown, TBWA\Chiat\Day’s singular ability to connect brands with consumers through music and sound has been incredibly consistent. From lush orchestration, to unexpected and clever use of licensed tracks, to memorable audio mnemonics, the agency clearly recognizes the power of audio, and deserves to be in our Hall of Fame.”
The Hall of Fame trophy will be accepted by Emily Wilcox, TBWA\Chiat\Day NY’s CEO, and will be a high point of the 2026 AMP Awards ceremony, which will include live musical performances, special honors, presentation of winners across its 14 categories, as well as the coveted Ryan Barkan Best In Show Award. In attendance will be approximately 400 professionals from the worlds of advertising and music.
“Great brands don’t just communicate. They resonate. Music has always been central to how we create that connection, from TBWA\Chiat\Day’s earliest work to what we’re building now,” said TBWA\Chiat\Day NY’s Wilcox. “We’re honored to be recognized by the Association of Music Producers for that legacy.”
In addition to the aforementioned Apple “1984” spot, some of TBWA\Chiat\Day’s best-known client endeavors featuring standout music and sound includes recent work from the Arizona Cardinals “18 Bars” platform spotlighting emerging hip-hop talent, to culturally-driven projects such as The Recording Academy’s “2% Choir” and “The Black Grammy,” and Levi’s “REIIMAGINE” campaign, which demonstrates how music-led storytelling can drive both cultural conversation and cultural impact.
Most recently, the agency launched a movement and stamp of authenticity in partnership with cultural art project Jazz is Dead titled “Played By Humans,” a first-of-its-kind platform that champions human-made music in an era increasingly shaped by AI, using blockchain-backed verification to certify that a piece of music was created, performed, and recorded by real human artists. At its core, it’s a rallying cry for the value of human creativity.
Tickets for the 2026 AMP Awards for Music & Sound ceremony are now on sale and can be purchased here.
