T-Mobile’s first ad for the G1 has hit YouTube, and let us give T-Mobile the eye-bulging, thorax-gobbling slow clap (in unison, please): it raises the bar on the “unapologetic stupidity = cool” technique that marketers have been perfecting ever since Bubble Yum first thought to slap the word “EXXXTreme!” on a packet of purple-flavored caulking. The new G1 will, according to the advertisement, make the average customer more “smarterer”, “connecteder” and “funnerer.” The phone itself? Merely “newerer”, “superer” and “nicerer”. Word construction like this is like a cheese grater sloughing off brain slices.
My favorite part of the ad, though, is when a brief glimpse of a typical G1 text message is shown; it clearly reads: “Man, that is totally funky, bro.” While the iPhone is clearly being marketed to the latte-sipping urban hipster, it’s nice to see that the G1 is setting its sights on a more down-to-earth market: the booyeah shouting, beer bonging frat boy, pockets overflowing with flunitrazepam. I’m ordering one!
[via Monkey Bites]
The moment the word ‘smarterer’ came on the screen, it started to seem like the advert was an excerpt from “Idiocracy”.
aw man I thought you were just joking
I was gonna say “Idiocracy”, but 1 beat me to it. This REEKS of it.
I’ll have two! (Frat boys with Rohypnol, that is)
“…ALL NEW OW MY BALLS”
It’s a pretty great retort to Apple’s strange “funner” iPhone ad.
Wonder if that’s a valid gmail address on the phone. And how many emails will go there
This is an interesting phenomenon to watch develop. Why is everyone everywhere calling this video a TV “ad”?
You DO realize that this isn’t an ad, right? Especially not a TV ad.
TV commercials are either 15sec, 30sec, or 60sec in length. This video is 1:12 in length. You’ll never see this on TV if only because of that aspect of it. Most likely it’s an internal piece or something for in-store display.
Don’t get me wrong, the criticism is due; conceptually, this piece is watered down and flawed. However, let’s not slam this as Google’s G1 ad campaign.
As #6 and #8 have said, I’m pretty sure this is a parody/jab at the “funner” bit from the iPhone 3G launch, and not a genuine ad.
Anonymous Commenter #8: Now more Douchebagerer than ever!