Apple’s “I’m Not Remarkable” has won the Emmy for Outstanding Commercial, giving one of the year’s most acclaimed pieces of accessibility storytelling television’s top advertising honor.
The film, directed by Kim Gehrig and produced by Somesuch, was honored Saturday during Night One of the 78th Emmy Awards at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. The Television Academy officially credits Apple as the agency and Somesuch as the production company on the winning work.
The victory came against an unusually strong field of nominees:
- Backstory — Levi’s
Agency: TBWA\Chiat\Day LA
Production Company: Somesuch Los Angeles - Backyard Legends — adidas World Cup
Agency: Lola USA
Production Company: Smuggler - A Critter Carol — Apple
Agency: TBWA\Media Arts Lab
Production Company: Smuggler - I’m Not Remarkable — Apple
Agency: Apple
Production Company: Somesuch - Why Do It — Nike
Agency: Wieden+Kennedy
Production Company: Iconoclast - Your Way Out — Coinbase
Agency: Isle of Any
Production Company: MJZ
The win is especially notable because Apple competed against itself. Alongside I’m Not Remarkable, the brand’s holiday film “A Critter Carol,” created by TBWA\Media Arts Lab, also earned a nomination.
But I’m Not Remarkable stood apart from the moment it arrived last December for International Day of Persons with Disabilities.
Rather than frame disability through adversity, inspiration or overcoming impossible odds, the film follows deaf and disabled college students simply living their lives — going to class, navigating dorms, moving across campus and heading out with friends.
Then it turns it all into a musical.
Gehrig’s film bursts across lecture halls, hallways, dorm rooms, quads and parties, with the students themselves at the center of the performance. Accessibility technology appears throughout, but rarely calls attention to itself.
Features including Magnifier on Mac, Braille Access, Accessibility Reader, VoiceOver, AssistiveTouch and Live Captions function as part of everyday life rather than technological miracles. Watch below:
REELated:
Colbert, Bad Bunny, Apple among Creative Arts Emmy winners
That distinction is the entire point.
The students aren’t depicted as extraordinary because they are disabled. They aren’t presented as people audiences should admire simply for navigating daily life.
They are funny, social, ambitious, independent college students.
In other words, they’re not remarkable.
And they are.
The campaign builds on Apple’s long history of putting accessibility at the center of both its products and its storytelling. The company established its first disability office in 1985, five years before the Americans with Disabilities Act became law.
Its advertising has repeatedly explored the subject, including Taika Waititi’s The Lost Voice, the Paralympic film The Relay, the Emmy-nominated Heartstrings, and the No Frame Missed documentary series.
Gehrig herself previously directed Apple’s celebrated 2022 accessibility film “The Greatest,” which similarly rejected the traditional advertising language surrounding disability.
With I’m Not Remarkable, however, the tone changed.
Where The Greatest was intimate and observational, this film is loud, rhythmic, and communal. Disabled students aren’t quietly asking audiences to notice them.
They take over the screen.
That makes the Emmy particularly fitting.
