Published on
December 9, 2024
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Welcome to the Breakdown, a weekly roundup of the best real-life marketing examples, created for marketers and agency folk that want to create work that actually works.
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In this Breakdown, we're looking at ✨ inclusivity ✨ - when marketing goes out of its way to include more people, in a genuine, non-profit-driven way.
Hoo boy, this one is a tear-jerker.
I feel like plenty of Christmas ads this year weren’t trying to make us cry, like they often do. But Apple stepped up to the plate.
This spot really reminds me of that one Google ad (Javier in Frame) for the lovely storytelling about how incredible technology can really improve lives.
I will say though - the fact that the man in Apple's ad has to be told to listen to his daughter's guitar-playing before he picks up his AirPods does make me think that maybe he just didn't want to hear it at all. I mean, he had the ability to the whole time, he just didn't.
Or less cynically, he was reminiscing about all the years of lost memories, lost sounds. Which only makes this ad pull on the heartstrings harder.
Very nice, Apple. As expected, a real ringer.
Oh, and this ad has just been added to our growing list of Xmas ads, by the way.
This is the now-classic way of demonstrating your brand’s inclusivity. The ‘thing you want to be inclusive about’ is a relevant point (i.e. this isn’t just diverse casting with no real thought or insight given to the group in question). It matters that this man is deaf, and it matters that Apple’s products are designed to support him. Mostly gone are the days where brands would negate all difference experience by different people with some “underneath, we’re all the same” BS. Everyone got tired of that pretty fast.
Now, we have real care paid to why, what and how we choose to include people - and most importantly, it’s something that lives from product through to comms. It has substance.
Well this ad just makes my point from above, but better.
“I think true inclusivity is feeling understood, and feeling like you don’t have to explain yourself.”
Yep, that’s pretty much it. What makes people different is important - we all know that we’re 99% the same as each other, but recognising, respecting and understanding that 1%, and how it changes people’s lives and experiences, is the point.
Anyway, this ad from Nissan is kind of an odd one.
We’re pretty used to brands leaning into both foreign cultural spaces (like sport is to a car brand), and leaning on inclusivity to add that substance to their ads, that cultural relevance.
But Nissan have made a whole TV show about it. A 3 episode run on Prime.
Don’t get me wrong, I think this is cool. Brands making TV is kind of insane, but really fun. And the message is a great one. I am just a bit curious about why.
I said I wouldn’t talk about the Jaguar rebrand, but it has thrown into relief the decisions that car brands make. What are Nissan cooking here?
Ok ok, this isn’t really inclusivity.
Having set out my terms with the ads above, I am now massively stretching the definition of “inclusivity” well beyond its reasonable limits.
What if we took it to mean - putting things in our ads that historically we haven’t. Including them.
(Please do not take this stretch as my diminishing real inclusivity - that is a real and important thing we can and should do with our marketing.)
Anyway, Hellmann’s are putting drugs in their advertising.
Not really, it’s just sandwiches.
But they’re in little see through packets, like drugs.
And like Charli XCX’s banned posters for her tour.
That’s right, the ASA banned those posters, so then Hellmann’s went and made some of their own.
Besides the Zip-loc bags, there is some DOOH work that mimics the minimalist Brat album art. No vivid green, sadly.
Look, I know this isn’t inclusivity. But I think it’s really fun work, and I wanted to get it in here.