DROID and AXE double team your teenager for the win!
Sunday, May 9, 2010
The DROID commercials, both old and new, are just about the worst bit of corporate slop currently barraging us on a daily basis. They run a close second only to the terrifying, and arguably offensive AXE commercials which border on soft porn and are aimed almost exclusively at teenaged boys. The DROID campaign seems to be targeting the same audience though thankfully not with the same direction. The DROID ads, though not as tasteless, are equally lacking in content and seem to be hoping to attract the mindless with an amorphous "cool" factor based solely on kick-ass graphics. DROID isn't a mobile OS it's a video game! A fanboy over at phandroid.com seems to agree:
"The iDon’t and Stealth Bomber commercials were very abstract and failed to identify a single device or discuss specific details about the Motorola Droid. While they did a GREAT job at drumming up buzz and curiousity, they did little to inform the masses. By the November 6th launch date, you and I knew exactly what was arriving at Verizon Wireless but the average consumer probably had no clue. Shouldn’t the timeframe have been slightly adjusted to accommodate ad spots that actually lobbied for the specific device rather than pushing an intangible concept that “something cool is coming”?"
Image: Mashup a video game titled "Droid" and Verizon's DROID website.
These comments were aimed at the first round of Droid ads that were followed by the DROID Does volley which seemed to be more about Dreamworks CG than the actual product. I'd point out, Lucasfilm owns the trademark to the term "droid" so maybe there's something there. In any case, the the exploding DROID Market "globe" fails to impress as does the robo-fingers typing on a touchscreen (Are they marketing to the much sought after Robot and Android population)? Watching a DROID commercial you experience the same bored, time-sucking feeling one would encounter during a video game's "cut scene" — you know — the ones that cause you to roll your eyes and mash buttons in an attempt to bypass ASAP.
Image: Mashup a Star Wars "Droid" and DROID TV spot screengrab.
That said, it's possible Google, and Verizon, and Motorola and Lucasfilm (and whoever else has a horse in this tangled field), may be following a path already set down by Apple. Think back to just a few years ago when we were being inundated with rows of dancing teenagers coupled with ipods attached to their heads. Those commercials have since disappeared and we are now seeing a focus on a more mature audience. What happened? The dancing teenagers from 5 or 6 years ago grew up. Could this be the path Google is following — get them while they're young and follow them into adulthood? If so, I hope this young DROID/ AXE/ Soft porn generation grows up fast because the current rash of omnipresent advertisements geared towards them is leaving me with an uncomfortable feeling of hormone imbalance, Adult Attention Defecit Disorder, and yes, a little dirty.
Image: AXE TV spot screengrab
