WTF is up with Palm’s creepy Pre ads?
If you were trying to compete with an established, icon-ly cool portable device heralded for its ease of use, versatility, and hip, fun attitude, would you:
A) Create a similarly fun, hip ad, maybe even hiring a celebrity pitchman
B) Decide to focus more on the business customer and downplay the hip, fun thing
C) Go right for the kill and immediately pull out the “Twin Peaks”-esque super creepy albino chick trapped in the Windows Vista desktop dream world?
I mean, is Palm even TRYING to sell these things?
Why is this creepy ? It is quite a stylish add.
I was just talking about this a few hours ago. I do think they are creepy, just really annoying. That monotone flat Stepford Wives attitude is really irritating. Makes me want to freak the hell out. Maybe that is what they are going for? HHMMMM.
I feel like I’m Atreu in the Neverending story. The thought of riding a furry white dog/dragon just gives me the eebie jeebies.
^^ yeah i really like these ads too. they definitely stand out, and have a longer lasting effectiveness that the zune ads didn’t have.
i do feel that they are reacting to apple’s “washed with unicorn tears” product cycle though. how do we best the iPhone? be more stylish and more sleek! apple’s advertising (besides iPod+iTunes) is anything but that now.
i like them myself i think there verry clever (full disclosure i have training in advertising design)
honestly if the wold was more mono chrome and she was holding a iPhone they still hold up
OMG OMG OMG have you seen the scary face at her right side in the 2nd vid at 0:24?
She is quite nice though…
I can’t decide if it’s better or worse than this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrLR7l4qgfQ
(Full disclosure: I’m awesome.) Which seems like it’s on TV every 2 minutes.
How much do you think Microsoft paid for her to say “Bing, bing, bing”?
They are not bad at all. I wonder if I’ll ever actually see it on TV though, given how little I watch it.
definitely creepy. If I saw that chick I would slice her throat with the pre’s knife app.
As a graduating senior in advertising and graphic design, i would have to agree wholeheartedly just how crappy these ads are. the sprint ads that mention the pre are pretty good, but this is up there as one of the creepiest, least making-me-want-to-buy-your-product ads. first time i saw it i felt dirty and used. her back to the screen is really odd.
Yea its creepy, And as such everyone I know thinks it loses it meaning, To put it simply. WTF!!!
P.S. I have a major in advertising, It fails in reaching it’s point of sale for Product,
But the constant discussion of the commercial whether it is bad or good has given palm publicity that it otherwise would have not had due to the strangeness of the Spot .
Anyway you look at it, They got there money’s worth in the name of Palm.
Such classified as the “Phycological approach of dissociation”.
We are Talking About It. and thats what it was meant to do.
But just like all commercials speaking for Myself, I Hit the “MUTE” Button. 😉
a TV commercial is made to speak about it… its viral marketing, strong and free.
I mean… why are we talking about Palm in a Mac blog?
This Ads a a sucess for Palm, because we mac users are chatting about it.
they dont care if we chat good or bad about it, they only want us to chat about it.
I don’t see anything special about these, really. It’s no better or worse than hundreds of other spots. A non-issue methinks.
Wow, those sure are crap ads… better than the laughable “Laptop Hunters” though.
Nah… I definitely agree with the Doc on this one. ‘The other day, I saw a juggler…’ Seriously?! STFU. I understand the metaphor, but I definitely think it could have been projected in a less creepy manner. The iPhone ads clearly DEMONSTRATE it’s ability to “juggle” tasks when showing off some of the available apps. Cut and dry… and that’s one of the reasons the iPhone is on top. I can guarantee a lot of people have simply seen the iPhone commercials and bought one based on them alone. I highly doubt somebody sitting on their couch saw some creepy @$$ chick, who appears to be jacked up on anti-depressants, calmly explaining her encounter with a juggler… decided, “I got to have that phone!”
I had the same reaction watching those ads. I think that Palm needs a new advertising agency if they hope to make a dent in the smartphone market.
i think she’s kinda hot in a creepy albino broad kind of way, but i find the ads entirely unmemorable.
apple picks amazingly catchy tunes (like them or not) for their ads, and it lets people know, “hey, this is an apple iphone ad” or “hey, this is a mac ad” or so on and so forth. these pre ads, on the other hand, are entirely forgettable..
I don’t find them creepy. I do find it odd that they have an ad that doesn’t make a damn bit of sense to anyone that doesn’t already know that the only selling point of the Pre is multitasking.
Don’t know if they are creepy or not, but they do you have you posting and talking about them. Isn’t that the point of an ad?
It’s not like the blog title is saying “Wonderful Palm Pre ads convinced me to buy one”. To have people talking about a product is indeed the purpose of a strong ad, but hey, we’re bashing it, not praising it!
If I’d even bother mentioning these ads to a friend, I won’t be telling him to buy one right away too..
I’m totally with you Joe –>
” I feel like I’m Atreu in the Neverending story. The thought of riding a furry white dog/dragon just gives me the eebie jeebies.”
plus….I feel something like a fat and cold hand running along my back when I see the Lady of the Lake…..
Love these ads! Very stylish, surreal….she is sexy. Much better than hip-hoppy ads with people dancing all over the screen…IMHO. Depends on your target audience..this ad definitely works for someone around my age..upper 40’s. More energetic ads strike a chord with my teenagers and mid-20’s son. Each to their own!
I make my living in the computer industry….seems to me a multi-tasking operating system is a must..none of us do one thing at a time anymore.
it seems that they try hard to quote Da Vincis Monalisa.
“The more balls she had up in the air”……HAHAHAHA!
Seriously, this is very creepy.
i’d still do her
the creepy part about it is how she’ll be ‘talking’ to you, then suddenly turn away from you to look at and interact with her pre… it’s like she’s way too pre-occupied with the phone.
it sounds ridiculous, but she’s way creepier than disembodied hands playing around with an iphone or ipod touch (or just about any other ad — apple or not)
Their advertising team should be fired. The ad is crap and utterly boring. Who’s brilliant idea was it to get an actress that resembles the Borg Queen and only show a head shot instead of a full body shot. Sexual appeal helps in selling products for companies. Unfortunately for Palm this ad fails at this concept by hiring an actress that appears sickly, flat chested, wears a hairstyle that isn’t stylish at all and only shows her upper body. Thus giving consumers the impression the Palm Pre is a half assed product and is a poor performer compared to competitor smartphones.
wtf? what does that have to do with anything??? pointless ad. palm has a chance to at least grab some of the sales away from apple and they produce this?… well byebye palm if this is how it goes on^^
She’s so white-skinned, she makes the KKK feel insecure about their own sense of supremacy.