David Stairs
Pedro Pascal dancing through the new Spike Jonez AirPods4 commercial
America is dance crazy.
Before there was Dancing With the Stars, So You Think You Can Dance, or World Dance, Americans got their dose of dancing from Fred Astaire or Busby Berkeley musicals. Gene Kelly made dancing in the rain look cool, and Grease and High School Musical legitimized dance for a whole new generations.
I learned ballroom at a Fred Astaire studio in Providence, RI the summer I graduated from art school. My parents loved to go dancing, and it seemed like a good thing to know. When Jennifer Lawrence got around to teaching Bradley Cooper how to partner her in Silver Linings Playbook, the craze for television competitions was well underway.
Since Glee hit the airwaves in 2009, dancing has moved into high-end soaps. Hollywood stars don’t seem legitimate until they’ve done musical theater, whether Meryl Streep in Mama Mia or Sutton Foster and Hugh Jackman in The Music Man. But it’s the crazy idea that a company can sell product with dance that is a notable change. Broadcast television is rife with examples of commercials where everyone is dancing.
Youtube carries tons of dance commercials ranging from the Cadbury Dancing Eyebrows or the Toyota ’70s Freak Out spot to the Kia Soul hamsters dancing Gangnem style and the full-length 5-minute Pedro Pascal AirPods 4 extravaganza.
The directors who shoot these masterpieces learned long ago from product and soundtrack placement in feature-length films that audiences love to see people hoofing frantically to their favorite hits from yesteryear. Isn’t that what everybody does in the car on the way to work if not in the shower while getting ready?
It once was true that a useful general degree in English or philosophy might prepare you for the next challenge in life. My bet is on a BFA in dance. I mean, doesn’t success naturally follow if you can bust your groove?
David Stairs is the founding editor of the Design-Altruism-Project.
