Apple goes country in ad filled with flags, motorcycles, and Brantley Gilbert
The company that famously brags about designing things in California is looking toward Sweet Home Alabama.
Apple set its sights set on the American heartland in the latest country-heavy commercial for its music streaming service.
The Apple Music ad stars singer Brantley Gilbert waxing poetic about open roads and small-town life as motorcycles tear up farm fields and diner patrons smile at one another. It looks more like a spot for Harley-Davidson than a tech company known for its pretentious marketing.
But all of this rural glorification is set to a soundtrack of snippets from Gilbert's iPhone. Classics like Lynard Skynard's "Sweet Home Alabama" and Steppenwolf's "Born to be Wild" are thrown in with Gilbert's own single, "The Ones That Like Me" and a Kendrick Lamar beat because why not.
"We want people to see your world ..."
Gilbert said in a press release from his publicist that while he doesn't usually do commercials, Apple's commitment to capturing his lifestyle won him over.
"When we started talking to the folks at Apple, they were saying, ‘We want to capture you, the way you live and the values you hold," Gilbert said. "'We want people to see your world, show them what you hear and respond to. If they see you, it says everything.’”
The ad debuted ahead of NBC's coverage of the Nascar Brickyard 400, which Gilbert and his label also sponsored.
Topics Apple Celebrities
Patrick Kulp is a Business Reporter at Mashable. Patrick covers digital advertising, online retail and the future of work. A graduate of UC Santa Barbara with a degree in political science and economics, he previously worked at the Pacific Coast Business Times.
