MakeMake's Ben West Turns Audiobooks Into Real Life Epics for Amazon Music

OMG! There’s a ferocious dragon dive-bombing the bus! It could destroy us all! Cool.
Amazon Music just dropped a series of stylish, F/X-driven vignettes playing up the transportive power of audiobooks.
Creative studio MakeMake and director Ben West employ a cheeky tone to show folks whisked away from their daily drudgery to worlds of thrills, chills and, in some cases, restorative relaxation. At times, characters and elements from bestsellers visit our universe to stir it up.
That’s true of this first spot, with a serpent from Fourth Wing surprising a young woman on her morning commute:
Perhaps less scary than some of the creatures you find riding city buses, eh?
“What we loved about this campaign was finding the extraordinary hiding inside completely ordinary moments,” West says. “The second you drop a great story into someone’s ears, everything shifts. Everything dissolves, and you’re somewhere else entirely. None of this feels like a stretch because that’s genuinely what a good book does to your brain, and thereby, your reality.”
Next, a dude samples the romantic fantasy of A Court of Thorns and Roses while doing dishes. Things get … frothy.
Maybe a splash of cold water is in order, my man.
“What began as a simple brief to build awareness around audiobooks on Amazon Music grew into an opportunity to push the idea somewhere more unexpected—shifting toward cinematic, live-action storytelling and using visual effects to elevate and expand each listener’s world,” recalls Cindy SooHoo, who served as creative director on the project.
“By reimagining familiar, everyday moments through the lens of someone’s imagination, we explored how audiobooks can transform the ordinary into something liberating and unexpectedly funny.”
That’s true of the next clip, which fuses a trip to the laundromat with the intense sci-fi stylings of Project Hail Mary.
“Ultimately, the campaign is a celebration of people, their creativity and the vivid personal journeys unfolding just beneath the surface,” SooHoo says.
Indeed, the work feels grounded and relatable, while its outré elements remind us that Amazon can unlock the magical vistas great stories provide.

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