What Do You Think of the Palm Pre Ads? 75
We know we've been posting a lot of these Palm Pre commercials and, well, we're looking forward to the day when they're not really newsworthy anymore. For now, though - we just can't let this one pass by.
The first, premiere ad with the monks was crazy cool, the second ad was serene and calm, but had a shade of weirdness to it, but we hung in. This third ad, however, gives us the heebie jeebies, the jibblies, the creeping doom.
We think we know what's going on and what's going wrong. Basically, what we have here is analogous to the Uncanny Valley. That valley, if you're wondering, is when you are unable to empathize with a person because they look almost but not quite human. So sayeth Wikipedia:
The "valley" in question is a dip in a proposed graph of the positivity of human reaction as a function of a robot's lifelikeness.
We're not saying actress Tamara Hope doesn't look human, we're saying that Palm seems to be aiming for "Calm. Serene. Peaceful. Natural," - they are almost but not quite there. The Uncanny Valley of Serenity, if you will.
Frankly, we're starting to think it's intentional. I mean, in the above video she references a juggler, and jugglers are one step away from clowns, and everybody knows clowns are creepy as hell. In any case, we came across an early video of iJustine juggling and that combined with her failed attempt to purchase a Pre and the anger that caused inspired the above.
What do you think of the Palm Pre Commercials?
Vote here and comment below!
Hat tip to @TheInvsbleMan for pointing out this first traumatizing version of the Pre commercial, another inspiration.
75 Comments
I strongly agree!!! i was just telling my friend that sprint is the one who has the cool pre commercials and palms commercials are just a waste of money and air time... i think that everyone prefers the sprint commercials better! palm needs to hang it up!!!
nope. they are only slightly less lame but that's cause they aren't that memorable. And the fact that unless you have sprint and have had the "the now network" explained to you it's not apparent from the commercial what the hell diffence that is from any other cell network.
Palm stop trying to be trendy, and calm and serene, and all this other nonsense. You have advertising gold in the form of the post directly below this one. Put the guy telling jokes about all the amazing things the pre can do in the first 15 seconds of your commercial, then show the zoom in with the multiple apps open and switching through them.
Jokes = get peoples attention and make them laugh, phone makes them go wow that looks cool, end of commercial. Why did i do graphic design and not marketing?
I loved Flow. Other than that, these two 30 second spots have been awful. Great video Dieter.
ha ha me too.
Until there are apps available to show the power of the Pre, the commericals are going to be without substance. Right now the iPhone "we got an app for that" commericals are move effective.
leave my future wife (ms hope, not that other biatch) alone.
and if juggling and flow, isnt a metaphor for multitasking i dont know what is.
I'm glad I'm not the only one that thought there was some weird underlying sexual context to these. Though I think they are trying to appeal to the hipper than thou, 20 something coffee shop blogging, indy film watching, physo intellectuals types. All those apple totting shallow pawns out there.
I think these ads are doing absolutely what they are meant to. Ever since the Palm Pre was announced everything about it has been viral. The phone is a social networking beast, how are things shared via social social networking? Virally. These ads are meant to be creepy, they are meant to get people talking. Palm wants people to say "wow that was creepy" then post it to Facebook or Twitter to show other people how creepy it is. The ad has done exactly what is was supposed to do, and that is simply to get people talking and sharing the video.
I don't get it...they want people to see their flagship product in a negative light? The "Any attention is good attention" works if you're Paris Hilton but not if you're trying to buy a phone.
This crossed my mind too, that maybe they're trying to seed some viral marketing. Notice that the last two commercials are very simple, meaning they'd be easy to recreate and parody and upload to Youtube. Could that be what Palm wants? Don't know. If you start tampering with a virus, you might get Outbreak'ed.
The background music in the commercial reminds me of the twilight zone. Am I alone?
Some one is always watching... you are never alone....
do do do do
do do do do
Twilight zone? I hadn't noticed that so much, but I've not seen TZ in ages. The whole "do do dooo doo do" thing when the Palm logo hits the screen reminds me a lot of South Park's parody of the Nanny 911 theme song.
It's not so much creepy and weird as it is just plain BAD and POOR marketing skills. The "mysterious" effect only lasts for about 1 minute. People don't wake up the next day thinking about the commercial they saw last night. They need to be straight to the point, and appeal to people who have no idea that a phone is capable of doing such things as the Pre is.
-Tell us what you are about to show us.
-Show us.
-Tell us what you just showed us.
It's so fuckin BASIC!
So is finding another word besides F***in as an adjective for basic.
Shittin' is a creative alternative.
I don't blame him though. He's frustrated at what a great product the Pre is and how badly Palm is advertising it.
Sigh. If you're going to be the grammar and diction police, at least get your parts of speech right.
"...as an [adverb] for basic."
OMG, the palm pre chick @PalmPreGirl just started following me on twitter. Her tweets are kinda amusing.
At first. It was funny. Then creepy. Then scary. Then funny again. Then just rather sad.
The orange people. Did the hokey-pokey.
Yawn. Good morning, Cuddles. Sylvester. Circling orange flock of freaks
I need another option: Some are good, some are bad.
Feminine douche-vibe?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH...
Btw, when will we get a Pre/iPhone optimized site? I like coming here on my phone.
m.precentral.net
Especially strange with Palm's odd (creepy) background music compared to the iPhone's happy-go-lucky background music.
There actually shao-lin martial arts students... Not monks. Not shure on my spelling :)
I think the "Have Fun" welcome video (which is exactly 1 minute like some commercials) is the best "ad" I have seen for the Pre. It includes catchy music, a happy gesture "spot"(?) floating through space, and without any voiceover, it shows some of the features of the Pre. Pretty simple, but effective, ad.
PLEASE do not give that "iJustine" whore any more exposure. People may confuse that with credibility, of which, she has none. If we all ignore her, maybe she will go away...back to the mall.
no fricken idea who that girl is. some white girl. how is that effective. if it's not getting new people to buy a pre how is that effective? it's not effective cause it get's early adopters to post on a comments section
if i didn't know anything about the Pre these commercials would make me buy an ipod instead. Because i know the ipod can copy and paste and do lots of stuff. Pre commercials don't sell the Pre well.
leave it up to palm to turn a really cool product into a creepy one. oh well, i can live with being the only one in the neighborhood with a superior smart phone.
I guess the ads are fine. I am not sure they feature the Pre and its features nearly as well as the iPhone ads did/do. And why do they show the Pre with the screen off at the end of the ad? Shouldn't they feature some nice bright screen shot or something?
By the way, I agree that clowns are scary. Not getting that from this ad, though. The guy's video is really kinda dumb. There was 3 1/2 minutes I'll never get back.
This was a good find from the YouTube comments: the song is "Tunnel" by The Dining Rooms from the album "Tre". Link to Amazon: http://bit.ly/TyaJT
I just downloaded it to the Pre because it amused me to do so.
The other weird thing about these commercials is the lighting--it looks like it's a 19th century painting. Only it's moving.
I have no problem with the commercials. The monks thing was very cool. The other one, not so much. This last one is pretty good, I like the juggler theme. But what about the woman. She looks like she's been hidden in the dungeon of some group of religious zen fanatical group since birth. You'd think this beautiful valley is the first time she's ever seen the sun. I keep wondering if she's really a vampire, but then, how could she survive out in daylight....? Very Creepy Lady. Makes a good commercial though.
Lovin the diss of iJustine. She's attractive, but I don't understand her immense following on YouTube. Incredibly annoying...
Shame they make her look so creepy. She's a cutie actually - http://www.northernstars.ca/actorsghi/Media/hope_tamara_250_ctv.jpg
Ok I I love the sprint ads, even the premier ad. Then we got the face book ad which is my favorite.
But that calm cool crap with the albino girl has to go. The palm pre is supposed to be NEW and HIP! Then we get the donut ad which was wonderful. Palm and Sprint need to crank it up a bit in order to compete with the apple store and blackberry world. I know can do it.
COME ON ALREADY!!!!!
Ok I I love the sprint ads, even the premier ad. Then we got the face book ad which is my favorite.
But that calm cool crap with the albino girl has to go. The palm pre is supposed to be NEW and HIP! Then we get the donut ad which was wonderful. Palm and Sprint need to crank it up a bit in order to compete with the apple store and blackberry world. I know can do it.
COME ON ALREADY!!!!!
The commercials are not creepy to me. I get what Palm is trying to get across. Simply the fact with the Palm Pre, one can gain or experience an "New Agie", Zen-like balance in life, being able to "juggle" multiple things - multitasking ability. I know everyone else gets it too. The woman in the ad is beatiful. So again, I disagree that the ads are creepy. Perhaps I am coming from a seasoned perspective since I am in my early 40s.
I do agree that Palm ads does not create excitement like the Sprint ads do. The Palm ads seems to be directed at women that are busy with life and work and are in need of balance. Thus, the Palm ads show the benefit of the Palm Pre. The Sprint ads generate excitement about the capability of the network and the Palm Pre. By talking about the 3G and 4G network and visually showing the Palm Pre's activity cards, the Sprint ads seem to focus on the geek in us by emphasizing the tech and power in and behind the Palm Pre.
Personally, I like both sets of ads. The Palm ads should show on Oxygen, Lifetime, during Soaps, Nat Geo, Smithsonian, etc. The Sprint ads should be broadcasted on ESPN, G4, Fox Sports, MTV, BET, etc.
And of course, I love my Pre. I am hopeful more refinement of the OS and more available apps.
The adds (other then the "Now Network" adds) are geared towards Girls and Women.
Palm needs to push the makeup mirror on the back of the pre more.