Two men are whispering in a courtroom. Everything around them calls for restraint: the wooden benches, the serious faces, the judge. Even a small conversation feels like something they ought to keep to themselves.
Then the music starts.
Play a Song, Matt Slamowitz's ad for the fictional JAUNT portable speaker, gets its joke from that sudden change. A product designed to bring music anywhere has arrived somewhere that really wasn't asking for it.
The faces do half the work
The whispered exchange gives the interruption somewhere to land. Once the song enters, the reactions keep the joke moving: a woman turning toward the men, the judge looking over, the awkwardness spreading beyond their little conversation.
The writing, performances and art direction all help the same idea. The warm wood, the ties and the small white speaker clipped to a belt make this an oddly convincing world. That seriousness makes the bad courtroom manners much funnier.
A good answer to a simple brief
JAUNT was one of the imaginary products in Runway's Another Big Ad Contest, Volume II. Its brief was to give every moment its own soundtrack. Slamowitz found a moment that makes you wonder whether every moment really needs one.
Play a Song finished in tenth place. It's a lovely example of a short ad making the product's promise into the joke itself. You understand what the speaker does because you've just watched it change the entire room.