'Hello Tomorrow,' the Song From Spike Jonze's Famous Adidas Ad, Gets an Upbeat Remake

It’s the same old song … but with a different beat since 2005.

Nearly 15 years ago, Adidas made headlines with “Hello Tomorrow,” a dreamy, dimension-hopping commercial from TBWAChiatDay and director Spike Jonze. It touted the Adidas_1 intelligent sneaker, which housed a microcomputer that adjusted the shoe for maximum comfort in real-time. 

Along with its surrealistic, gravity-defying visuals, the commercial was noted for its use of an ethereal, acoustic-driven soundtrack performed by Karen O, lead singer of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Also called “Hello Tomorrow,” the song was written by Sam Spiegel, head of music company Squeak E. Clean Productions. 

See the spot here: 

The commercial won three silver Clios, a Gold Effie and a pair of Cannes Gold Lions, including the very first such award for original music. Karen O released an expanded version of the song as a single. 

Now, to celebrate its merger with Nylon Studios and the formation of expanded commercial music and marketing firm Squeak E. Clean Studios, Spiegel and his team have remade the song for a music video that pairs clips of the company’s crew at work with archival footage from NASA. 

“This recording was made all over the world, from all six of our studios: New York, Los Angeles, Austin, Chicago, Sydney and Melbourne,” Spiegel tell Muse. 

Some 14 songsmiths from the combined company submitted ideas for the remake. “I took all of the demos and mashed them up, taking my favorite parts from each, and then brought a children’s chorus into the studio to record the vocals,” Spiegel says. 

Though recognizable, the update has a more upbeat, energetic feel compared to the original. Its transformation speaks to the power of music to transcend space and time, engaging new listeners with rhythms and vibes shaped for the moment.

“That [original] version was much more of a magical lullaby, about entering the world of your dreams and imagination,” Spiegel says. “We wanted this version to have a similar message of creating your own world of imagination, because that’s what we’ve done with our merger. We’ve cultivated the visions of these two awesome companies for many years, and now we’ve merged to create a bigger, more complete and powerful version of our visions. For that reason, we wanted the song to feel powerful and exciting, rather than a lullaby.”

What’s more, the forward-looking track captures “the future of what I want to build in a company,” Spiegel says, “creating entire campaigns from conception, to production, experiential, completion—and even helping with the distribution of the projects.”

The “Wu-Tang in Space Eating Impossible Sliders” push for White Castle last year serves as “a great example of a project we handled head to toe, bringing in partners like our production partner Hey Wonderful where we found it necessary,” he says.

More recently, Squeak E. Clean in Sydney provided updated takes on the jazz standard “East of the Sun (and West of the Moon)” for these playfully quirky ads from Design Army and Thailand luxe condo developer SC Asset.