Palm Pre TV: What th’–?
Haven’t you always wanted to be surrounded by hundreds of orange-clad dancers making YOU the center of an elaborate dance routine? If so, you’ll love the new Palm Pre spot. It is all about YOU, or rather, a strange woman apparently meant to stand in for you, effortlessly controlling her world by using her brand-new Palm Pre. And for no apparent reason, being danced around by a whole bunch of people in orange outfits.
In the introductory TV spot, an otherworldly girl
wanders over to a big rock in the middle of a green field, then climbs atop it to fiddle with her Pre. Instantly, a human mandala of hundreds of dancers in orange Japanese outfits encircle the girl and begin doing a large-scale routine. Hey, are these the “Thriller”-dancing Phillipine prisoners? Or maybe monks with AFTRA cards?
From far overhead, then, we see the swirling dancers creating various symmetrical formations around the girl on her rock, ala Busby Berkeley, only without the sexy legs. Finally, we return to ground level to see the girl, Pre and big rock, the dancers gone. The girl’s voiceover talks about all the lives of … what the heck is she talking about? as she pushes different images across the screen of the Pre. I gather it’s something about “flow.”
A grandiose production number like this would look right at home in “The Last Emperor,” but for the introduction of a dumbed-down iPhone?
Then there’s the principal talent. I don’t know what she’s supposed to be. Pale, nearly featureless, wearing a sliplike garment of no-color, her golden hair pinned up on the back of her head in a shape resembling The Visible Man’s intestines.
I would love to have been in the room when this concept was presented. Then maybe I’d understand it. I sure don’t get it from watching the commercial.
Now there’s another Palm Pre commercial featuring the same woman. No dancers, just the woman, the digestive tract hairdo, the face of the Pre, and the greenscape background. Did she just say, “reincarnation??” Oh, I get it. We all have various connections, wear various hats, have different organizations and all. And the Pre can help us keep track of them. But that message could apply to the iPhone as well as the Pre. Advertising 101 says you have to have a meaningful point of difference from your competitor. Not just weird commercials. And these certainly qualify as weird.
Have to agree with you on these. Though they did prompt you to talk about them and provide links to them, so I’m sure word-of-mouth is as important to them as the audience “getting it.”
Side Note: This was the second time in a week that Busby Berkeley came up in conversation. =)
Yup, Brad –
You’re right. They got me to publicize them. I notice that lately, they have been airing a different, more salesy commercial that emphasizes cost savings vs. iPhone. No mention of reincarnation, thank goodness.
Long live Busby Berkeley!