Palm wasn't the first to think creepy women sold gadgets 57
Remember those very first Palm Pre Ad commercials you wish you had never saw? Or the ones which simply cause you to stop and think "What on earth were they thinking when they came up with this? Well, it seems we may have finally found the answer. Sonrioz in the forums posted where he thinks the inspiration for the early Palm Ad Commercials came from and, well, we can't say Sonrioz is crazy on this one.
Cue Sega's Promotional video released in 1995 of the Sega Saturn. A video, which well, is described as a "mish mash of jarring confusing images". What's relevant here however, is the first 38 seconds or so of the video, Déjà vu anyone?
Videos after the break!
Sega Saturn Promotional Video
All we know is that we're happy that Palm saw sense in the end and maybe now with HP's Recent acquisition of Palm will the Technology Behemoth put some well deserved marketing Dollars into actually promoting the webOS.
Which now leads to a question posed to you PreCentral viewers, what do you think HP needs to do to best market the webOS to compete and dominate in the smartphone market from the likes of Apple's iPhone, Google's rapidly expanding Android OS, and the upcoming Windows Phone 7 & Blackberry's OS 6? Sound off in the comments!
Thanks to Sonrioz in the forums!
57 Comments
Incredible!
And a short time later, Sega bailed out of hardware and became a bench player in software. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
Wow. I think the Sega one is creepier.
So, zombie chicks dig superior, poorly supported and undersold tech?
Who knew?
@teemed
Lol. +20
(P.s. I owned a Saturn..:D )
I still own a Saturn! Was a great game console at the time. That video brought back some memories...lol.
She's not creepy, dammit, she's "quirky." She's too hot to be creepy.
and just like palm, the creepy chick dint help at all with selling saturns. So all advertisers, DON't USE CREEPY CHICKS!
Ccrreeppyy.
at least the "creepy girl " title for the ad, was a 'Hit.
Oh snap i remember those commercials.. good blast from the past man. Sega Saturn World Series Baseball. Still best baseball game ever in my opinion.
No Hollywood flick could top the linked videos. Call me creeped out. Thank goodness HP has taste.
There is also this one very popular at least in Europe made for the sony playstation. It won several awards as far as I remember.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHCr3Np8F3c
I for one, love the Palm Girl ads.
"for one" being the operative phrase in that sentence.
@Baryn
LMAO!
I think I like them because I'm emotionally detached from the perceived harm in sales that such marketing may have had. At the time, I could put aside the phone aspect of the commercial because, well, it was only for Sprint (us Verizon users are used to looking at all the cool kids with their toys as we stand outside the window in the rain). And because I only bought the Pre because it was cheap and I was poor. Only later did I find out how awesome it is.
I don't think it's good marketing for a phone, but compared to many of the shitty commercials I've watched all my life, that one grabbed my attention and was easy to watch. I can think of worse things than a pretty, seemingly naked woman telling me to buy something while cool music plays. Hell, I wish there were more commercials like that!
@Baryn
LMAO!
had never saw? That is a phrase I wish I had never saw...
also, I think palm was impressed by the movie Minority Report, and tom cruise wasn't available...
Speaking of creepy...(tom cruise)
But then not like the Sega Saturn sold well, did it?
And look where Sega is now - selling software and not hardware.
So Sega was like Palm... Nintendo like Apple and Sony like Google? Sounds about right. Sega thought its fight was with Nintendo and Sony snuck in and stole that generation. Looks like Google is doing the same. Think I will break out the Saturn for a little Panzer Dragoon Saga. BTW, if you like fighting games and have not checked out Blades of Fury for the Pre- you should. I dont understand how Nintendo, Sony and Sega fell asleep behind the wheel... they should have games on these phones.
Hahaha - check out THIS one!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pr4oNfF4_Fo&feature=player_embedded
How bout this? Simple, funny, and they all ready spent time and money on. Why did they not use this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n17jY24nsWM&feature=related
holy crap!!! why didn't anyone tell them...sick just sick
and just like palm, the creepy chick dint help at all with selling saturns. So all advertisers, DON't USE CREEPY CHICKS!
Sony did in europe and it was one of the most sucessful brand awareness ads ever :P.
Its execution and target what matters I suppose.
Also, the first batch of ps2 ads were directed by David Lynch and they were as weird as it gets.
Saturn was probably the most succesfull sega console in Japan and on the first year there are numbers that say that it sold more than psx itself. Then psx ate all consoles alive.
Saturn survived there with very japanese centric games (Sakura Taisen and so), a lot of them actually.
But yeah, for me was susprising to learn that, given the disaster it was in Europe and USA.
Just one year before the Dreamcast stole the show, Sega was running the very popular series of Segata Sanshiro ads for Saturn in Japan.
the current droid commercials promoting multitasking are exactly what palms commercials should have been. show what the phone is capable of, and show apps utilizing thoe capabilities.
Interesting that they both did just about as well as each other.
the current droid commercials promoting multitasking are exactly what palms commercials should have been. show what the phone is capable of, and show apps utilizing thoe capabilities.
the current droid commercials promoting multitasking are exactly what palms commercials should have been. show what the phone is capable of, and show apps utilizing thoe capabilities.
and just like palm, the creepy chick dint help at all with selling saturns. So all advertisers, DON't USE CREEPY CHICKS!
while I was reading this an awesome droid commercial came on -_-
i'd do her.
both of em.
and i'd record it with my pre while play sega.
yah. I said it.
i'd do her.
both of em.
and i'd record it with my pre while play sega.
yah. I said it.
You sure said it...twice
And it only took him 15 seconds to do it twice!
There, I said it.
the current droid commercials promoting multitasking are exactly what palms commercials should have been. show what the phone is capable of, and show apps utilizing thoe capabilities.
Please take these hideous things off this site
I like bizarre commercials. Anyone remember this one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqkNPcUMffU
I like these PS3 commercials better than their new ones with that annoying blonde guy that isn't funny!
WOW!! Now I know where Rob Zombie got his influence for his horror movies. This commercial loooks like the movie trailer for "House of a 1000 corpses".
Creepy girl is actually pretty hot!!!
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0394045/
Yeah they should have used creepy girl's hot alter ego...
You talk about creepy??? Her most recent movie was "Manson"... didn't anyone at Palm check her references???
HP will have a great product if they can get the calendar to work and the software to stop acting like Windows ME... Oh, yeah, battery life like the centro maybe????
what hp needs to do is exploit the WebOS's multitasking if they have any questions on how to do so they can check out some of the fan made ads up on youtube for that!
second they need to run that new fan inspired commercial during big events.. Stanley Cup, World Series, SUPER BOWL, etc etc.. Then run them as much as humanly possible during prime time during shows such as House, or American Idol! Next start snapping at daytime tv like soap opera times and talk shows like Oprah or Ellen. Once that's taken care of run ads on scifi channel, Mtv, G4, and other channels that hit the geeks and younger crowd.
that's pretty much what verizon and Google are doing with droid and other Android based phones. Look what it got them.. Mindless zombies buying up Droid phones left and right why? Because the tv told them to. The tv persuaded them to think the Android was the next best thing to sliced bread.
I went to school for visual communications and I watched what Google was doing and thought damn if they can't beat Apple oe Palm at quality OS they are going to do it with sheer force. They forced the name Droid and Android and HTC in everyones eyes and throats. Up until the commercials the general public were new to smart phones. Only us tech geeks knew what they were about. The general public knew of the IPhone. And to them it was just a ipod touch that could make phone calls.
so in a way Google was smart as hell and crammed the name of their OS and some of the brands that had Android on it in everyones faces so when they heard smartphone the first words out of their mouths was Android..... I give Google credit for taking the moment and taking advantage of the general less tech savy public with their Blitzkrieg ad campaign this past 9months.
sucks Palms advertising firm only thought of a creepy girl which obviously didn't work for Sega what made that agency think it would work for Palm.
IF they are even interested in webos for a phone. we have only heard tablets and printers
I forgot how creepy the Palm lady was...
her most recent movie was "Manson"... that's how creepy she is/was
Holy crap o.o my post got to the front page! I'm amazed, thanks ^^
Its Psychedelic
Why did you have to remind me of that crappy commercial?
At least the Sega one is somewhat taking a comedic approach to it.
9 minutes of my life gone forever...
Why, why, why?
At least they did sorta showcase what the Saturn could do.
No offense, kids, but the origin of the ad isn't that hard to figure out. The "creepy woman" scene is intended to resemble some female portraits by Leonardo da Vinci and similar portraits by other artists. I imagine that Modernista, the ad agency, which likes to talk about the "art" in its work, figured that people would recognize that and associate the Pre with invention, or sophistication, or something like that. They didn't, so the ads fell flat.
Was that Lurch and Eric Stonestreet in the Sega video?
What HP needs to do is make it clear, do you want freedom? Do you want to run ANY app in the background? Do you want a real keyboard? What about something that is distinctive instead of just blending in with the crowd? How about some innovative features like the Touchstone?
Market based on strengths, and just say it, people want freedom, and WebOS and the Palm Pre and Pixi can give them that freedom. Don't fade into the crowd, be an individual...