Singer and rapper Jackson Wang (王嘉尔) made waves by shooting the music video for his new song, Let Loose, on iPhone. The excitement was supercharged by the fact the music video was shot on the yet-unreleased iPhone 17, putting Wang front and centre of a very high-profile marketing campaign.
Jackson Wang, who has 30.9m followers on Weibo, announced the collaboration on his social media with a trailer and the caption ‘Commissioned by Apple. September 13th. Let Loose MV. U have no idea.’ along with the hashtags #ShotoniPhone #iPhone17Pro #LetLoose. The trailer also credits him as the writer and director of the music video.
Online response was enthusiastic, with the hashtag 王嘉尔新MV用iPhone拍摄 (Wang Jiaer’s new music video shot on iPhone) trending on Weibo. One Chinese fan jokingly asked if the popstar comes as a complimentary item along with the new iPhone (买17送王嘉尔吗).
Apple CEO Tim Cook even took to Weibo to endorse Jackson Wang’s work: “Loving Jackson Wang’s new music video for Let Loose, shot with iPhone 17 Pro! The dynamic camera work really brings his creativity to life.”
Shot on iPhone is a long-standing campaign for Apple. It uses celebrities, usually musicians but sometimes photographers and filmmakers, to showcase a new phone’s camera features. Notable names from past campaigns include Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhangke. Others include The Weeknd, Olivia Rodrigo and Selena Gomez – all of whom also shot music videos on iPhones.
Putting the Hong Kong-born Jackson Wang at the helm not only showcases Asian talent, but demonstrates that Apple is keen to keep its share of the Chinese market amidst growing competition from domestic brands like Huawei and Xiaomi. Research by analytics firm Counterpoint has shown that Apple’s share of smartphone sales in the Chinese market dropped by 12.6% from 2023 to 2024. Could choosing Jackson Wang as bannerman for the latest iPhone be a response to that?
