• by Danielle Oster , May 16, 2025

Apple kicked off a new campaign for the MacBook Air laptop featuring a notable new director partnership.

A series of ads positions the new version of the laptop as ideal for college students, showcasing features such as Apple Intelligence, AirDrop, and iPhone Mirroring across a variety of campus scenarios The new ads were directed by actress and director (“Booksmart,” “Don’t Worry Darling”) Olivia Wilde. Oscar-winning cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt (“Mank”) also worked on the ads, which were led by Apple’s dedicated agency, TBWA/MAL.

The ads employ a darkly comedic tone related to the pressures of navigating college life. In “Pointed,” for example, a college student complains about making sense of extensive class notes when his roommate interrupts to explain how the “Summarize” feature available as part of Apple’s writing tools makes that easy. In “Mirrored,” a student uses Apple’s screen-mirroring feature to communicate about her food delivery without having to get up and break her concentration. “Magnifier” examines how the feature enhances accessibility for users with vision impairment.  “Dropped In” showcases quick file-sharing with AirDrop, with the feature something of a hero for students scrambling to share a large file just before class starts.

The campaign’s focus on features available through Apple’s predictive large language model, Apple Intelligence, fits with the brand’s goal of increasing adoption of such features. During a recent earnings call with investors, an analyst asked if the company anticipated a “tipping point” for the technology to go mainstream, and whether supporting that adoption would include an increased marketing focus.

In response, Apple CEO Tim Cook said, “I do believe it will go mainstream.” He added, “Keep in mind that on the iPhone side of our business, you either have to have an iPhone 15 Pro or iPhone 16 to use Apple Intelligence. And so, as that base grows, I think the usage will continue to grow.

“I know from my own personal experience, once you start using the features, you can't imagine not using them anymore, Cook added. “I know I get hundreds of emails a day, and the summarization function is so important.”

The tone of the campaign, amping up a dark academia vibe with dramatic sound elements, is a stark contrast to the earnestness of Apple’s recent “A Gift For Mom” Mother’s Day campaign spotlighting the Vision Pro and spatial video.