• by Danielle Oster , July 18, 2024

For its 2024 Paris Olympics campaign continuing the long-running “Shot on an iPhone” series, Apple is looking ahead -- far ahead.

Aiming to demonstrate the capabilities of the iPhone 15 Pro’s advanced photography features, the brand’s “2036 Hopefuls” campaign celebrates today’s young aspiring athletes who could go on to Olympic glory in a dozen years or so. It was shot by renowned sports photographer Walter Iooss Jr., who spent over 50 years as a contributing photographer for Sports Illustrated, and worked on an extended study of Olympic athletes working their way to the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics for Fujifilm called “Shooting for the Gold.”

The series documents talented young athletes across sports including table tennis, gymnastics,  baseball, swimming, skateboarding and boxing. All of the athletes involved are under the age of 10 years, according to LBB, with the youngest a U.S. gymnast and a baseball player from Mexico.

Apple posted a video ad documenting the making of the photo series on its Instagram channel, which features a track by the young musician/producer St. Panther.

The company posted the video alongside the message; “Commissioned by Apple. While the world is focused on legendary athletes of today, we partnered with the legendary sports photographer Walter Iooss to celebrate the playful determination of the world’s young athletes of tomorrow.”

In addition to running on Apple’s social channels, the campaign also includes an OOH activation featuring billboards with images from the series which will run globally -- including major U.S. cities such as Chicago, Miami, Los Angeles, and New York -- according to LBB.

The campaign follows Apple’s unveiling of “Apple Intelligence” AI integration at its annual developer’s conference, which touted the “largest-ever redesign” of its Photos app, featuring new image editing and curation tools.