BEATS BY DRE | THE PILLS | 2014
The Day a Speaker Learned to Talk / BEATS BY DRE "THE PILLS"
A speaker grew arms and legs and started talking. Its voice belonged to the likes of Eminem and Chris Rock — a pretty star-studded mouth.
The problem
The Beats Pill is a portable speaker launched in 2012. Talking specs wasn't going to make it interesting, so they decided to give the product itself a character. The concept was "Small But Loud" — small, but loud.
The insight
Beats' strength is how close it sits to icons of music and sports. So the idea was: turn the product itself into an observer of culture, and let it crack jokes about whatever's happening in the moment.
The idea
Characters in black, pink, red and white were built with moving arms and heads, with a slot in the mouth where the Pill speaker fit. The voices belonged to Chris Rock, Eminem, Tichina Arnold, and Mike Skinner. At the VMAs, it commented live on Miley Cyrus and Robin Thicke's performance on stage — the world's first responsive TV commercial. Talking the moment culture happens. That speed is the crazy part.
What happened
By November, it had become the number one wireless speaker in sales. It won a Gold Lion in Integrated Media at Cannes.
Afterthought
Giving a product a character isn't unusual on its own. But making it talk in real time as an observer of culture is rare. The fact that Apple brought the same characters back in 2024 shows just how beloved they became.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Gold 2014
