Creative Malt Vol. 4

Since you last heard from us, it's been a very interesting eight weeks in the world of advertising and creativity. AI continues to cause both wonder and mischief. Netflix is once again influencing pop culture with shows like Baby Reindeer. Nigel Farage is quoting Kelis song and Apple is smashing creativity We have some real gems in this edition of Creative Malt. So, let’s get started:

Crush On Apple...

In a bid to promote Apple’s latest iPad, they created a promo film called Crush. Its concept physically shows all the things you can now do on an iPad, despite its slim and lightweight design. However, the internet and social media had a different view. Many were quoted as feeling disrupted by it, questioning why Apple is "crushing creativity" and forcing people to play on-screen rather than in real life.

The conversation grew so intense that Apple issued an apology, calling the advert a misstep. Competitors didn’t miss the opportunity to strike while Apple was down. Within 48 hours, Samsung released a reply featuring a young person playing music from the Apple ad on a smashed-up guitar while reading the music from a 三星电子 tablet. It ended with the note, "We would never crush creativity." You have to love the creative rivalry and quick response to the zeitgeist.

Oi, Under Armour, That’s My Work

In their latest Anthony Joshua advert for Under Armour, the creative agency explores the exciting world of #AI. However, the ever-watchful world of social media was not happy with the oversimplification of how the advert was made. Comments and social media posts highlighted that multiple tools, some infused with AI, were used to create the ad, but a creative human force and a team of humans were still required to bring the ad to reality. This scrutiny forced the brand to elaborate on the tools and assets used, revealing that a team of human creatives was needed to wield and direct the AI tools. The fire was further fueled by the fact that past creative work was used to create the new advert, but the original creators were not credited.

A Very British Public Service Advert That Scared the Sh*t Out of Us

One night, while going down a YouTube rabbit hole, Louise, our producer, and her husband rediscovered the public service adverts from their youth. Louise shared these with the wider agency to show how messages were communicated more bluntly back then—e.g., "touch this power line and you die." Although most of the team did not grow up in the UK, these films left a lasting impression, but we’re still not sure if they are the right ones for today.

Despite the reaction to the blunt messaging, we did enjoy the creativity and photography behind them. One person described them as akin to action scenes from 1970s Ladybird books.

Find Your Friends

Back to Apple again, this time with a feel-good film that showcases a tiny (some would say not very unique) feature in a very creative way. The insight that we all want to find our clan is amplified by the very visual and cult world of StarWars .

While discussing the ad, an interesting insight into the technology emerged: the "Find My..." feature works best when there are multiple devices in close proximity. Essentially, this triangulates the location, leading to a more accurate reading. How did we find this out? One of our team members has a cat with an AirTag on its collar, and because they live in the countryside, the tag only indicates the village, not the specific location. Perhaps the Star Wars future is still a little further away than some of us think.

Manual Graphics

If you were a child of the 70s, 80s, or maybe the 90s, you probably created collages for school projects or for fun during art lessons. Andrea, one of our creatives, spotted a resurgence of this style in filmmaking. As you can see from the example below, the mix of styles has a handmade feel, giving the film a unique and fun quality. As AI advances, it will be interesting to see if more projects like this and other hand-crafted disciplines will make a comeback on our screens.

‘Washed Out’ AI Music Video

This video is made entirely with Sora AI Videos . It's wild, and we kind of love it. It has a classic B-movie feel, and the use of distinctive characters has been cleverly done to create continuity. What was interesting to learn about its creation was the huge challenge the creator faced with these characters. Creating prompts to guide the AI tool in generating consistent characters, their appearances, and their movements was no small feat. We enjoyed discovering that a creative filmmaker and a team of creatives still needed to prompt the AI and craft the film. When the AI got confused, the creative team had to step in.

ChatGPT

We will cover this in a separate article, but the rise of ChatGPT as a search engine, due to its friendly demeanour and its integration into Apple products, is something we feel will be a huge game-changer in how we connect with technology and, in turn, the world.

Well, that’s all for Creative Malt. If you are enjoying the content, please comment and let us know.