'Shot on iPhone' Goes K-Pop With NewJeans

Nothing goes better with angsty teenage revenge than shimmery K-pop beats and kicky dance moves. The short film below—from Apple and TBWAMedia Art Lab, starring South Korean girl group NewJeans—proves it.

The morale of the story is: Do NOT cross the friends of the band! You could end up in an edgy-perky “Shot on iPhone” music video. Assailed by alternating gloomy vibes and upbeat rhythms, you won’t know which end is up.

Wooseok Shin’s artsy direction integrates NewJeans into a compelling story. It’s kind of noir, which suits the scenario, and there’s a colorful ’90s Hollywood aesthetic at play.

Like all Apple campaigns these days, the clip, “ETA,” does a fine job of putting product features in a relatable, relevant context.

“Shot on iPhone” previously accomplished this mission in journeys to Mexico and Turkey. “Relax, It’s an iPhone” took a similar path, but with dashes of surreal humor. And Apple’s “Underdogs” returned last week, leveraging white-collar workplace humor.

Through these ad series, Apple portrays its technology as curator and guardian of popular culture and, by extension, an arbiter and facilitator of sundry aspects of daily life.

The work uses local color and shared experiences (relationships, office life, music) to paint a global brand in highly personal strokes. It’s a more holistic, comprehensive approach than, say, Samsung’s—though its ads are good, too.

But Apple takes everything a step further, with great sophistication and style, casting iPhones and Macs as essential components of existence that unlock an array of possibilities.

Woven into various narratives—co-stars that drive the action and help tell the story—they seamlessly serve as both the medium and message.

“ETA” dropped last week, running on digital, social media and TV in the U.S. and markets in Asia.