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Sink Into Capitalism's Sunken Place With FKA Twigs In Spike Jonze's New Apple HomePod Ad

Slate

Spike Jonze essentially makes two types of commercials. There's the distraction model, in which a frenetic, unrelated-to-the-product conceit takes over the ad, like his KENZO World commercial from 2016 starring Margaret Qualley and the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion: In this category, we can put his ad for Levi's fly weight jeans (like the KENZO World ad, it's mostly about choreography) as well as that Nissan Frontier commercial that is mostly about a dog pushing a recliner through traffic. Then there are the Spike Jonze ads that would be anti-capitalist if they weren't ads. See, e.g., his IKEA ad, which made fun of viewers for becoming emotionally attached to products (while simultaneously encouraging them to buy more products): Or his Gap ad, which harnessed people's bottled up rage at monotonous chain retail stores (while simultaneously encouraging them to shop at the Gap): His newest ad for Apple HomePod combines the two forms: it's a strikingly beautiful short film, in which the Apple HomePod transforms FKA Twigs' depressing apartment into a rainbow-striped wonderland by choosing exactly the right song at exactly the right time. It also makes owning an Apple HomePod seem supremely depressing and possibly dangerous on an interdimensional level.