torsos are the new big thing
Apple just released their TV spot for the newly redesigned iPod Shuffle. The spot is great — and has a cool soundtrack featuring the song “Who’s Gonna Sing” by The Prototypes. The visual effect of having people change every time a shirt is removed is clever as well.
The spot also does not show the heads of any of the dancers, but only the torso of each person. This reminded me of a recent campaign that Hewlett-Packard did for their “Computer is Personal Again” promotion.
The spots are distinctly different in their tone, design, and messaging, but it is interesting that this technique is being used by another technology company while the HP spots are still in rotation. Perhaps it points to a new trend in featuring torso-only TV spots?
December 13th, 2006 19:40
I like both campaigns but had never thought of the torso connection. With the HP notebook spots, I understand why the head is cropped out — the owner remains a mystery until his/her name appears. My favorite was Jay-Z, keeping track of his investments, “Because, after all, I’m retired.” Great!
The iPod one, I suppose it’s torso because the thing is so small that a wider shot would bury the thing.
Interestingly, there’s a new campaign I just started seeing for the Samsung Blackjack phone/PDA/camera thingy. Seems like a rip-off of the HP spots — black background, torso doing card tricks with the phone. Meh.