Apple just released a stop-motion ad to introduce the Mac mini and it has creatives rejoicing about the handcrafted animation and lack of AI. In fact Apple has even published the behind the scenes video showing exactly how the animation was made – with animators painstakingly sculpting and painting clay, just to prove its chops as a human-made piece of work (a relief to those questioning it online).
The ad itself is a departure from Apple's traditional aesthetic in many ways, though it retains the usual minimal style across background and product. But the animated components – beginning with a yellow, Hulk-style strongman busting out of the Mac mini, are more in keeping with Apple's current marketing style – whimsical, less corporate and less polished. In that way, this ad is more similar to the style of its TikTok marketing posts, but with more craft added in.
"To show off the power and speed of the Mac mini, we turned it into a character capable of anything," says animator Justin Dasch. "So you got rocket ships, freaking race cars, buff dudes, and super complex robots doing multitasking."
See more of what the animation team had to say in the video below.
I'm enamoured by this ad. After the furore and subsequent apology that came out of Apple's iPad Pro ad of a couple of years ago (in which an iPad Pro crushed musical instruments, paint brushes and other symbols of tactile creativity), it's also an appreciated nod to the value of human creativity. The mac mini is positioned as an enabler rather than a replacement, and that's all creatives really want from their tech.
What do you think of the Apple mac mini ad? Let us know in the comments.
