Welcome to Approve. Adapt. Kill. Every week, we look at the advertising people are seeing and talking about, make a call, and explain what we would keep or change. The useful part is the judgement you can take into your next creative review.
Apple leads this first edition. There is extraordinary craft across its launch, alongside a few details we would refine. Campari turns a divisive taste into an invitation, On makes a major entrance into football, and Crocs gives its crocodile an office job. We also look at two very different answers to the same beauty brief.
01 / Apple launch event
Adapt.A stunning launch. A few human details to fix.
Event: 9 September. Continuing launch story; iPhone 18 Pro retail launch: 18 September. Duo: 23 October.
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The launch event brings together iPhone Duo, the iPhone 18 Pro line-up, Apple Watch and AirPods 5. We would approve the craft and adapt the launch mix. The products and films are beautifully designed, the production is meticulous, and the event runs with extraordinary polish. Our reservation is the human performance: John Ternus’s first CEO outing and several internal presenters felt more rehearsed than engaging. For a company selling what technology lets people do, the delivery should feel a little more alive. The oddly elongated hand in the Duo demonstration is a smaller but revealing issue: product proof loses force when the image itself becomes the story.
Keep the visual world and almost all of the work. Invest more in presenter rehearsal and direction; allow natural cadence and personality. Re-shoot the hand demonstration with unmistakably credible proportions. We appreciate that giving the new CEO performance notes is not the easiest job in the room.
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02 / Campari × Alan Cumming
Approve.The barrier to purchase becomes the reason to buy.
Campaign launched 21 September 2026, for Negroni Week, 21–27 September.
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We love this. Campari leans into the very characteristic that divides drinkers: bitterness. For some, it is a barrier to purchase; for others, it is the reason to choose the product. Alan Cumming makes that distinction entertaining and desirable. His performance, the red visual world and the quality of the production all reinforce the same idea. This is a clear Approve.
Laphroaig is a useful parallel, leaning into smoke rather than trying to soften its character. The useful question is whether the thing putting some people off is also what your audience values most. Campari gives that audience permission to love the acquired taste. Negroni Week then connects the idea to a real drinking occasion. We would keep that connection between personality, liquid and serve central as the campaign expands.
03 / On × Kylian Mbappé × Thierry Henry
Approve.You do not need a new playbook to make a powerful entrance.
18 September 2026 launch; continuing films and social content.
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Watch: Original Mbappé × On collaboration photography ↗We approve. Entering a sport with its defining talent is a familiar strategy, but familiarity is not a weakness when the fit is this strong. Henry supplies stature and credibility across an older generation; Mbappé brings today’s football audience and enormous cultural visibility. On gives the partnership a contemporary visual treatment and a product-development story. It is a convincing way to make an established running brand feel like a serious football entrant immediately.
Keep the cross-generational casting and modern execution. The next job is to turn borrowed credibility into product proof: show what the boots do and why players should care. We would back the commercial logic; results have not yet proved it.
04 / Fenty Skin ↔ Laneige
Adapt.Make the benefit interesting. Give the attention somewhere to go.
Fenty reveal 17 September; Laneige film 14 September, product launch 17 September.
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Fenty Skin and Laneige make a useful pair because they approach the same category from different directions. Fenty has the stronger product story: its fresh-slicing eye-patch dispenser makes a familiar routine distinctive and addresses practical frustrations. Our question is whether the work is visually arresting enough to earn attention in a busy feed. Laneige, with Jin, has the more inviting visual world. The playful journey from in-flight routine to red-carpet moment gives people a reason to watch. We are less clear on the reason to choose this particular eye patch.
We would adapt both. For Fenty, start with a recognisable frustration and make the slice-and-apply demonstration impossible to miss. For Laneige, keep Jin and the entertaining transition, and make one useful product difference part of the story. This is the old tension between building awareness and explaining a benefit, in two very current executions. Each could borrow something from the other.
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05 / Samsung
Adapt.Keep the switching insight. Lose the therapy room.
14 September 2026
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The insight is good: people can stay with a phone ecosystem for emotional and social reasons, even when an alternative appeals. We would keep those conversations and change the setting. Putting them in a therapy format asks the joke to carry an avoidable mental-health sensitivity, while a phone is an awkward fit for the occasion. Everyday moments with friends, partners or teammates could make the same point with greater product relevance.
Use demonstrably real user experience and natural phone-use occasions: planning a night out, sharing photos or navigating a group chat. Make the commercial context clear, and ensure any first-person product claims reflect the speaker’s actual experience. The advice is to remove ambiguity, not to accuse this campaign of breaking rules.
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06 / EA FC27
Approve.Making the annual update feel like an event.
18 September 2026 Early Access launch.
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We approve this. Selling the next instalment of an annual football game is a difficult brief: much of the experience is familiar, and a list of incremental improvements is unlikely to make an exciting film. EA FC27 understands the immediate job. The pace, music, quick cuts and sheer production quality make the launch feel like something to join in with. It sells the feeling of football and the arrival of a new game.
There are feature clues for people who want to look more closely. We would make sure those lead to clear explanations elsewhere in the consumer journey, but we would not turn this film into a narrated list of updates. Habitual buyers need a reason to get excited; hesitant buyers need somewhere to investigate. This is a strong awareness execution within that wider journey.
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07 / Crocs × Niles
Approve.A very good social campaign. Let it do that job.
Current episode: 17 September 2026. Niles was introduced on 13 August.
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As a social campaign, this works really nicely. The Duolingo comparison is easy to see: a recognisable brand mascot behaving like a personality people can follow. But Niles also makes immediate sense for Crocs. A crocodile navigating office life turns its familiar brand symbol into someone with routines, relationships and a sense of humour. The 17 September episode, captioned “if anyone asks ive been here all day”, gives people a recognisable workday joke. Excellent, on-brand characterisation. We approve.
We would build on the character and the office setting as a social series. It gives Crocs a repeatable way to entertain, with the product naturally present rather than interrupting the joke. The short, episodic humour suits the feed and gives people a reason to keep following. We would not treat this execution as a through-the-line campaign: it is a strong social idea, and that is the job we would ask it to do.
Sources and original work
08 / Paula’s Choice × Hannah Waddingham
Adapt.Great casting, but we think the skin looks overly retouched.
15 September 2026
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Hannah Waddingham is an excellent choice: funny, expressive and immediately commanding. With Ted Lasso back for a new season, the timing makes sense too. We like the pacing, the confidence and the production. This is an Adapt for one specific reason: the skin looks so smooth before and after the product appears that the finish starts to distract from the skincare story.
We would keep the talent and the film’s personality, and dial back the visual perfection. Beauty advertising has always walked this line, but visible skin texture would make this execution more convincing.
09 / RIMOWA × Faber-Castell
Approve.Limited editions built around real consumer passion points.
Announced 14 September; available 17 September 2026.
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We approve. This works because it starts with a passion point in the consumer's life. RIMOWA and Faber-Castell turn the act of storing and carrying drawing tools into something desirable in its own right. The limited edition offers a new way for an existing customer to enjoy RIMOWA through art and creativity. The beautifully shot reveal and precision of the object give that idea the production it deserves.
It is part of an established approach: RIMOWA has already explored cocktails with Robbe & Berking in October 2025 and darts with Winmau in July 2026. Art adds another passion to that collection. The opportunity is to choose interests that matter to the intended customer, then make a genuinely desirable object around them. A limited edition gives someone a specific reason to engage beyond their next luggage purchase; the brand's recognisable case design makes the move credible.
What would you have signed off?
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Opinions expressed are entirely our own. No affiliation or endorsement is implied. Campaign imagery and trademarks belong to their respective owners.
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