Maybe I am OCD

I can't seem to stop thinking about the new Android phone from Verizon. I am constantly pondering it's abilities, what calendar support it will have, how it will sync with my Linux boxes, and oh so many other things. The thing I have probably spent the most time thinking about however is the ad campaign.

I am far from a marketing guy. I find lots of things about the field to be somewhat evil, but on occasion people make what I would consider art, or at a minimum something that is very interesting and is worth of critique.

Last night I am watching baseball with a close friend, and we starting talking about the various adds we have seen a 1000 times now.* So during one of the breaks my friend and I get to talking about the android phone. We start ripping into the details of a 45 second add spot.**



Now my friend contends that the add doesn't actually tell you what the phone does. However, I have to disagree with him. I am the first to admit that I drank the open source Kool-Aid a long long time ago, but I don't think this is my blinding love of all things Open Source effecting me here. Can we go to list form for a minute? I want to just rattle of some points about why this add is amazing.

1) In the first part it nails the entire asthetic that Apple has been using for their branding.

2) It uses that branding to mock apple at the same time.

3) Then out of no where they take that entire look, and turn it on it's head.

It's awesome. I couldn't be happier with the add.*** They tell you several things the phone does by pointing out the short comings of it's supposed competitor. It's genius.

Now, here is the REALLY REALLY cool thing that the fine folks at Verizon did to promote the phone to the media.



That's right, the gave out some R2D2's. That's just sweet marketing. Sure you should give out some C3PO's so that his feelings don't hurt****, but I can live with this.

Now, look I have no belief that this will hurt apple. Their brand is so powerful right now that it's scary. There is a HUGE culture of people who buy into it and all it's trappings. That's a great job by them. I will however say that the fine folks about RIM should be really worried.
*When you watch every playoff baseball game you get beaten down by the same products over and over and over again. I'M LOOKING AT YOU FRANK TV!


**You'll be shocked to hear this, but we don't have girlfriends and not a single girl hit on us during the game.

***Here I will admit to a bit of fanboydom. Though the add is good.

****He is rather sensitive after all