{
  "id": 3942864,
  "title": "How Apple made its charming claymation Mac mini ad",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/28/how-apple-made-its-charming-claymation-mac-mini-ad",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-08-28T10:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Fast Company",
    "slug": "fast-company",
    "url": "https://www.fastcompany.com/91597464/how-apple-made-its-charming-claymation-mac-mini-ad"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Apple’s latest advertisement for its Mac mini product features the computer as a series of tiny characters made entirely out of clay. The animated spot, which premiered on August 25, showcases the Mac mini’s powerful capabilities in a charming and memorable way. TBWA\\Media Arts Lab (MAL), an Apple-exclusive agency, produced the advertisement to coincide with the launch of the new Mac mini, which runs on Apple’s first 2-nanometer chip. The device, priced at $899, boasts significant improvements in storage, graphics, and AI performance compared to its predecessors.\n\nThe 2-minute ad, which has garnered over 16 million views on YouTube in just two days, presents the Mac mini as a muscly bodybuilder, a donut-spinning race car, and a rocket ship blasting off. These anthropomorphized characters were created using traditional stop-motion animation techniques, with every element – from the characters themselves to the expressive motion lines – physically built out of clay. The animators spent nine weeks working on the project, adhering to a strict deadline to release the ad in time for the product’s launch.\n\nTo capture the Mac mini’s diminutive size (the device measures just 5 inches by 5 inches), the animators designed and constructed miniature set pieces, including a tiny clay keyboard, camera, and whiteboard. They also developed a fleshy brain for the Mac mini and produced believable puffs of smoke using clay. The only digital work in the spot involved minor cleanup tasks, such as removing rigs, which is typical in stop-motion production.\n\nThe decision to create the Mac mini as a series of clay characters highlights Apple’s ongoing commitment to human craftsmanship in its advertising. By eschewing CGI and AI, the brand emphasizes the role of human creativity in crafting the product’s story. The ad’s success is evident in its rapid rise in popularity, with the accompanying behind-the-scenes video achieving an impressive 188 million views on Instagram. Viewers have praised the spot for its authenticity and charm, particularly in contrast to the growing prevalence of AI-generated commercials.",
  "summary": "In Apple’s newest ad, its Mac mini is a muscly bodybuilder, a donut-spinning race car, and a rocket ship blasting off. Every one of those characters was made out of clay. The spot, which debuted on August 25, was created by TBWA\\Media Arts Lab (MAL) (a bespoke global agency that partners only with Apple) to mark the launch of the new Mac mini , which is the company’s line of screenless desktop…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}