The Awardist Emmys James Corden channels David Bowie, Spice Girls for Apple Emmys ad By Nick Romano Nick Romano Nick is an entertainment journalist based in New York, NY. If you like pugs and the occasional blurry photo of an action figure, follow him on Twitter @NickARomano. EW's editorial guidelines Published on September 18, 2016 12:00PM EDT James Corden had a crazy idea for the Apple commercial that aired during the 2016 Emmys: What if he played iconic musicians like David Bowie, Slash, and the Spice Girls? Well, that’s exactly what happened. The ad, which aired on Sunday during the awards ceremony to promote Apple Music, featured Corden pitching Apple execs some outlandish marketing ideas. Most of them involved him transforming into various music icons, including Pharrell, who also popped up in the ad to tell him it’s a bad idea. Elsewhere, Corden is seen pitching a dramatic short in which he gives a thirsty child on the side of a road an iPhone. “Why didn’t you just give him water?” asks an exec. Fortunately, Corden wasn’t out of ideas, as shown in the ad’s extended cut in the video below.