Dive Brief:

• American Express launched a television campaign promoting Apple Pay on Sunday during the midseason premiere of AMC’s The Walking Dead. 
• The new spot features a retrospective of AmEx’ classic campaigns, including spots starring Jesse Owens, Jim Henson, Jerry Seinfeld, and Tina Fey. 
• Bank of America, Chase, Capital One, MasterCard, and Wells Fargo have also created TV spots promoting Apple’s mobile-payments system. 

Dive Insight:

American Express debuted a television spot for Apple Pay during Sunday’s midseason premiere of The Walking Dead, one of the highest-profile placements in primetime television programming this month. AmEx plans to make its support of Apple Pay a primary message this year; the spot also emphasizes its own history of reliability.

Since Apple’s mobile-payments system functions alongside traditional banking options, many of its big-name financial partners including MasterCard have produced ads touting Apple Pay, without cost to Apple. AmEx allows users to view their full transaction histories through Apple Pay, and permits payments using membership rewards points.