Last year, Anomaly and youth fashion brand, Journeys, launched a brand platform, Life on Loud, and a back-to-school commercial housed in a four-minute music video featuring music artist, Gus Dapperton, and the “essential” influencers, in a remake of the 1998 New Radicals hit, You Get What You Give.

This year’s Life on Loud effort is scaled down to a longform 60-second spot, a hero of 30-seconds and social shorts, but the music (this time a custom hard electronic beat from music producer Star Slinger), influencers (two-time Olympic medallist, Sky Brown, and brother, Ocean Brown; actors, Maison Bailey and Anna Cathcart; music artists, Samara Cyn and Inji) vibrant energy and mischief and rebellious attitude remain. While most back-to-school advertising treats school like a place. Journey’s Life on Loud treats the return to the classroom as a statement of self-expression. 

The new work is built around the line, Don’t Just Show Up. Turn Up, transforming an ordinary school day into an explosion of imagination where creative confidence reshapes the world around you. It imagines the first day of school through the dream-logic of a music video where teenage imagination replaces reality – a surreal expression of confidence, creativity, and personal style, the things that Gens Z and Alpha value. In the face of typical back-to-school tropes, the films lean on absurdism as a tool for celebration and imagination. Director Max Siedentopf, a visual and installation artist first, shot the film’s effects largely in-camera. Where they weren’t, they were hand-rendered by animation partner Slow Bureau, not generated. Hallways become skate parks, headstands and breakdancing take the place of hall passes; students arrive on horseback or atop speaker-stacked bicycles – every corner revealing another unexpected surprise. 

Don’t Just Show Up. Turn Up wins the next generations with the idea that when young people fully express themselves, the world doesn’t stay ordinary, it tunes to their frequency.

The campaign also includes three 15-seconds cutdowns of the hero spot, as well as multiple 6-second social spots, crafted specifically for TikTok and short-form social platforms, featuring an outlandish collection of attention-grabbing visuals. Individual clips include a student hanging by one arm from a parking lot light pole, a student presenting a literal plate of shoes, and a bulldog wearing a denim vest while riding a scooter.

The work invites teens to turn up the volume on their exploration and expression. The entertainment of a music video acts as content for teens to choose to hit replay on rather than reach for the skip. And while the execution is entirely new, Life on Loud lives on – when young people express themselves unapologetically, their world turns all the way up. 

The campaign covers social and TVC channels, including an influencer component.

“Back-to-school is one of the biggest retail moments of the year, but it’s also one of the most competitive,” stated Journeys chief marketing officer, Stacy Doren. “We wanted to create something that captured the confidence, excitement, and possibility that comes with a new school year. At its core, this campaign is about celebrating self-expression and positioning Journeys as a place for young people to discover and define their personal style.”

“Most Back to School ads ask young people to fit in or prescribe to some sort of archetype. We wanted to celebrate what happens when teens lean into their own unique imagination and self-expression,” added Anomaly group creative director, Leanne Amann. “There’s a tendency to dismiss teen’s surreal humour and absurdity as ‘brain rot’. We see that differently. Underneath the absurdity is inspiring creativity. And rather than ask young people to tone it down, we built a campaign around turning it up.”