The Spin Since Michael Dell returned to the helm a year ago, Dell has struggled mightily to rebrand itself as cutting edge rather than value-minded. On the product front, that's entailed everything from rolling out a worthy iMac competitor to veering away from lackluster AMD chips. But the more noticeable changes have occurred on the marketing side, where Dell has focused on creating glammed-up ads targeted toward the style conscious. (Hype Sheet previously swooned over the company's use of the Flaming Lips' "The W.A.N.D." in one great spot.) This (RED) ad, directed by the man responsible for Nirvana's seminal "Smells Like Teen Spirit" video, continues the trend. (See below for that promised behind-the-sceneser.) But Dell doesn't want you thinking they're just in the computer game to make cake—they've also got heart, just like fellow (RED) backers American Express, Microsoft, and (perhaps most notably) Apple.

Counterspin Cynics, including our tart-tongued droogs over at Consumerist, have raised some important questions about Dell's (RED) pricing scheme. The laptop featured in this ad, for example, costs $150 more than its plain-Jane peer, yet only $50 of that goes toward the Global Fund. The only spec difference is that the (RED) model runs a tweaked version of Vista. Is that really worth an extra $100? Or has Dell built in a way to make a little coin off consumers' best intentions? On top of that, the intersection between commerce and charity is always guaranteed to make some folks squirm—especially when the commerce part is far more visible than the end results in the developing world. Last year, AdAge controversially estimated that the (RED) campaign has spent more than its raised, a claim that elicited a strong rebuttal. Hard to tell who's right here without taking a closer look at the books, but Dell should realize that today's consumers are a naturally suspicious lot; you can't just say you're on the side of the angels and expect immediate praise.

Mission Accomplished? The spot certainly spurred a lot of Google searches, which was Dell's true aim—note how they leave the details of (RED) vague, and simply tease with the joinred.com URL at the end. Will that translate into gangbusters sales of (RED) XPS laptops and desktops? The hunch here is "no"—the price premium seems a wee bit high, and I trust that the majority of charity-prone consumers might prefer direct contributions (as well as their attendant tax write-offs). But even if you're an ultra-cynic about the commerce-charity meetup, you have to admit this is an effective ad—the do-good angle aside, it basically makes the XPS M1530 seem like the computing equivalent of Axe body spray. That's a pretty impressive image overhaul for a brand that, until recently, couldn't shake its rep as the Night Swept of hardware.

Hype-O-Meter 7.5 (out of 10). Yes, you can certainly question the sincerity of Dell's commitment to the cause. (And, please, do so in comments.) But this spot fits in rather neatly with the company's efforts to shed its Ben Curtis past.

Brendan I. Koerner is a contributing editor at Wired, a columnist for Slate, and author of the forthcoming Now the Hell Will Start. His Hype Sheet column appears every Thursday on Gizmodo.

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The Spin Note the carefully selected buzz phrase "true high-definition"—as if something called "false high-definition" exists, too. Toshiba knows that millions of consumers are first introduced to high-def at the Super Bowl, where "normal" folks gorge on Buffalo wings at the homes of early adopters. (I, for one, first encountered high-def in the wild at a Super Bowl XXXVII party.) Those who want the HD buzz to continue, then, would be wise to upgrade to an HD DVD player—one that, the commercial is careful to stress, will make even your existing discs look better than you ever dared dream. How much better? Toshiba is glad you asked: It claims its players offer "up to six times the details of DVD." Yes, Toshiba has adopted the language of shady diet-pill purveyors that promise weight loss of "up to" 30 pounds.

Counterspin There's something to be said for Toshiba's earnestness, as consumers are begging to be educated about the merits of high-def DVD. But the follow-through here is as weak as the 1980s beer-commercial setup. Toshiba muddles its message by pointing out that HD DVD's resolution edge will make your current DVDs look better, too (a claim which some commentators will likely challenge). The company obviously thought such reassurance might comfort buyers who fear making the wrong HD bet, but doesn't it just make things even more confusing? It's almost as if Toshiba is resigning itself to losing the studio battle against Blu-ray, and will henceforth hawk HD DVD players as tools to goose existing DVD titles. If HD DVD players are just gonna be the cinematic equivalents of enhanced dial-up, isn't the cut-rate $149.99 price tag still a little high? Especially in light of Microsoft's decision yesterday to cut the price of the Xbox 360 add-on HD DVD player to $129.99.

Mission Accomplished? Every pundit and his dog has a take on the HD DVD vs. Blu-ray imbroglio nowadays, with the verdicts generally ranging from "HD DVD is dead" to "HD DVD is grievously wounded, but alive." Warner's decision to cast its lot with Sony may wind up being a business-school case study for years to come, yet another example of the Tipping Point phenomenon that has made Malcolm Gladwell an egghead demigod. Perhaps back-scene shenanigans led Warner to make that fateful choice, but don't underestimate how badly Toshiba botched its marketing. The company completely ignored the wow factor in favor of the staid consumer-education approach—a miscue we've criticized before. In the end, Toshiba may have simply gotten in over its head—its strength has long been value, not glamour. It certainly doesn't have the geek cache of Sony, which has been an HD leader for years. Huge case in point (and the insider detail alluded to atop this column): According to a member of this ad's production crew, Toshiba insisted that the spot be shot on HD instead of film. That meant breaking out some Sony cameras, which have become the industry standard. If you have to use your chief rival's HD hardware to make your own HD ad, that can't bode too well for your long-term prospects.

Hype-O-Meter 1.5 (out of 10). I was actually going to rate this higher because I have a soft spot for sincerity, but the lack of creativity becomes progressively more irritating after repeated viewings. A last gasp from a format that may soon go the way of the Vectrex—although, hey, you never know.

Brendan I. Koerner is a contributing editor at Wired, a columnist for Slate, and author of the forthcoming Now the Hell Will Start. His Hype Sheet column appears every Thursday on Gizmodo.

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The Spin Comcast launched Digital Voice nearly three years ago, making it one of the first cable behemoths to capitalize on the trend toward IP telephony. But don't tell Comcast it's a VoIP provider—it much prefers (nay, insists on) the term "true home phone replacement system." The euphemism is designed to reassure potential customers that their calls won't be traveling along that big, scary internet backbone that's prowled by the most nefarious characters this side of Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Comcast takes advantage of this consumer paranoia by stressing that Digital Voice data doesn't travel over the public internet. The idea here is that you'll be willing to pay a premium over Vonage's lower rates in exchange for peace of mind. And, hey, you're still saving a bundle over what you fork over for copper wire, right?

Counterspin Yeah, you save, but the service still seems a tenner or so overpriced. The $39.95 rate that Comcast usually trumpets is only if you sign up for the company's triple play package. Take away the TV component and rates vary widely, often fluctuating due to introductory promotions. Once those teasers run out, consumers can experience sticker shock. Check out these reviews from DSLReports; a lot of folks once enraptured with Comcast Digital Voice ended up switching away purely for fiscal reasons. My big question is, Why is there such a spread between Comcast Digital Voice and Vonage? Comcast obviously has higher capital costs, but it can also partially subsidize its phone-service offering with TV loot. And keep in mind that Vonage has kept its prices static despite incurring massive costs from various patent disputes. Oh, Vonage customers also don't have to tip the cable guy for installation—though, granted, most consumers would rather stick a fork in a toaster than fiddle with a router.

Mission Accomplished? This ad's humorous (if slightly macabre) all-about-price pitch is just a short-term play. At CES, Comcast bragged ad infinitum that it had become the nation's fourth largest provider of residential phone service, eclipsed only by some Baby Bells (Verizon, AT&T, and Qwest). But Comcast's pricing advantage will rapidly disappear as those companies go large with their own VoIP services—er, sorry, "home phone replacement systems." So Comcast is scrambling with the pricing message now, but seems prepared to replace it with a tech-centric campaign once AT&T's U-verse gets cranking. In the next few months, expect Comcast to start touting its service's up-and-coming features: caller ID that appears on your PC and TV, remote programming of DVRs, and even Comcast-branded cordless phones (watch out, Uniden).

Hype-O-Meter 6 (out of 10). A mildly funny, mildly successful attempt to reach technophobic consumers who've yet to grasp the value of IP telephony. But, man, I feel for that mom—isn't there a chestnut about Ritalin being easier than parenting?

Brendan I. Koerner is a contributing editor at Wired, a columnist for Slate, and author of the forthcoming Now the Hell Will Start. His Hype Sheet column appears every Thursday on Gizmodo.

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The Spin A viewer unfamiliar with the N95 8GB might be forgiven for walking away from this ad unaware that the device is, indeed, a phone, rather than Nokia's souped-up answer to the Archos 605. Yeah, there's a brief shot of the keypad at the end, but the hype's exclusively about the media capabilities ("Play movies/play games/play music" sayeth the copy). So goes Nokia's strategy to get the N95 8GB to filter down to non-geeks— the early adopters went ga-ga over the third-party apps, but the next tier of consumers (Nokia hopes) will be dazzled by the audio, video and N-Gage games. Oh, and note the lack of speaking parts for the actors. Nokia must be going for that vaunted all-in-one international approach—you can be sure that voice-over artists from Malaysia to Mexico will be enlisted to tailor the spot for their home markets. (In fact, here's an edited version in Italian.)

Counterspin Tough to see how Nokia is going to capture mainstream hearts and minds without offering a serious price reduction on the N95 8GB. Remember, Apple slashed the iPhone's price pretty early on, despite (debatedly) gangbuster sales to early adopters; the company knew it had to ratchet down the cost-of-entry to reach the fat part of the consumer bell curve. Nokia seems oddly confident that quality alone will convince a new class of consumers to buy the N95 8GB, an assumption that doesn't seem justified given the legitimate gripes about the phone's shortcomings (most notably the lack of a QWERTY keyboard). All due respect to the company for its policy of openness toward application developers, but built-in basics are going to be more important to the majority of users.

Mission Accomplished? It's a little hard to tell what Nokia has in mind for the N95 8GB this year, as the company prepares to go full-bore in North America. Based on its past ads trumpeting the N95 8GB's third-party apps—ads which were explicit swipes at Apple—Nokia would seem to have the iPhone in its sights. But then why the accent on multimedia instead of productivity tools? What wowed so many people about the iPhone was the ability to access the (*groan*) "real Internet." The N95 8GB can do likewise, and it even works with Flash. Nokia is going to have to do a much better job of highlighting those features, because few people will want to drop nearly eight hundred bucks on a glorified Archos 605 (which retails for well south of $350). Still, all the handsome hype in the world may not be able to mainstream the N95 8GB—the lack of a QWERTY combined with the lack of a touchscreen is very 2005. (If only this video wasn't a hoax...)

Hype-O-Meter 4 (out of 10). A gorgeous and clever ad in many ways, but a puzzling message for a $779 phone looking to break beyond the monied geek elite.

Brendan I. Koerner is a contributing editor at Wired, a columnist for Slate, and author of the forthcoming Now the Hell Will Start. His Hype Sheet column appears every Thursday on Gizmodo.

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The Spin The most significant part of the spot is Hodgman's declaration of Vista's awfulness, a fact that millions of frustrated PC users can attest to. (Your humble narrator is among that throng, having opted for a clean reinstall of XP Pro after a Vista upgrade turned his Sony Vaio into a pricey doorstop.) Apple is right to see the Vista fiasco as a golden opportunity to convert a whole new class of consumers—users who've stuck with PCs chiefly out of habit, nothing more. That doesn't just cover light users who've had the same Dell desktop for five years, but also enterprise customers whose natural inclination is to fear IT change. Those suits are now reconsidering en masse, so painful has the Vista switchover been. And it makes sense that Mac is an increasingly sought-after option for the private sector, given all the plaudits that Leopard's received from Mossberg and his many acolytes.

Counterspin You can always quibble over whether an ad formula has jumped the shark—Lord only knows how much digital ink has been spilled in the name of deciding whether the Geico Caveman stuck around too long. But creative nitpicks aside, the main substantive beef that some critics have with the continued Mac-versus-PC series is that it does a poor job of educating consumers. Don't say it can't be done: Apple did an excellent job with its second batch of iPhone ads, in which man-on-the-street types clearly described the gadget's functions. True, that's a taller order with an operating system like Leopard, but I'm willing to bet the big brains at TBWA\Chiat\Day could cook up something. If not, then consumers are pretty much forced to check out an Apple store to learn the basics—a great experience that can convert the PC faithful, but one that's not available to millions of potential customers. (No Apple store in Montana? Really?)

Mission Accomplished? Divining Apple's long-term plans is a bit like forecasting Leonid Brezhnev's next move, circa 1979. There's lots of speculation—particularly here on Gizmodo—but few viable tea leaves from which to read. It is clear, however, that Apple is facing some tough decisions over the next twelve to eighteen months, beginning with whether it wants to mount a more formidable challenge to Microsoft in the laptop space, or focus its efforts even more on smartphones and digital audio players (where the company is currently the bee's knees). If it's going to be the former, Apple has its work cut out for it: Despite a successful 2007, the company's share of the operating-system market rose just 0.51 percent, to 7.31 percent. Meanwhile, for all of its technical failings, Vista has actually been a sales champ. Turning that around will require Apple to not only keep innovating with its products, but also with its enterprise sales tactics. That may not be a battle worth fighting, especially if Apple truly foresees next-gen iPhones, iPods and the like eventually replacing laptops for a huge swath of users.

Hype-O-Meter 6 (out of 10). Even if you're sick to death of this campaign, you have to hand it to Apple for pressing an advantage at exactly the right time. But there are pitfalls to obsessing over a competitor, too—more about what's specifically right with Apple's innovations, please, rather than gloating over Microsoft's woes.

Brendan I. Koerner is a contributing editor at Wired, a columnist for Slate, and author of the forthcoming Now the Hell Will Start. His Hype Sheet column appears every Thursday on Gizmodo.

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HD DVD's Pitch Toshiba is obviously no great believer in splashy ads, as they clearly spent a pittance on this spot. Not only did the HD DVD champion refuse to pay for the right to use NFL logos, it also hired an out-of-work, notoriously uncharismatic coach as its spokesman. (Toshiba also seems to have skimped on the dialogue—the exchange between Coach Schottenheimer and Number 11 is, uh, less than inspired.) Despite the clumsy execution, however, the goal here is wise—the majority of consumers are sitting out the format wars, because they're afraid of picking the loser and then being saddled with expensive doorstops. So the combo-disc approach makes sense, as does the college-lecture vibe; at this point, consumer education is a priority.

Mission Accomplished? Absolutely not, because Toshiba botches the most important part of the ad: the website mention. As of this writing, HDDVDNBC.com brings up nothing but a blank page. How can consumers be expected to trust a new technology that doesn't deliver on so simple a promise? The folks behind this campaign better get on that quick, because this ad will doubtless air several times during Saturday's Jacksonville-Pittsburgh wildcard game. (It was in heavy rotation during last week's Colts-Titans game.)

Blu-ray's Pitch The PS3 becomes some sort of nightmarish robot, in order to tout the console's secondary use as a Blu-ray player. Sony, of course, loves to tout its PS3 sales as evidence that the Blu-ray format will eventually win out; though only 370,000 standalone Blu-ray players have been sold (about 200,000 less than standalone HD DVD players), there are 3.4 million Blu-ray drives in PS3s. On top of that, the new PS3 drives feature the most up-to-date BD Profile 1.1 spec. Not that there's any specs porn in this spot, nor any hint of reassurance for consumers who fear picking a loser. The ad is all about the dazzle—though the impact of that dazzle will vary greatly according to your TV's might.

Mission Accomplished? The crunching soundtrack and sharp Ratatouille visuals pack punch, but is it enough to pull consumers off the fence? People are already vaguely aware that both Blu-ray and HD DVD offer superior picture quality, as well as multiple camera angles. Unfortunately, those features are difficult to convey in a thirty-second spot, especially if viewed on a sub-1080p HDTV. Blu-ray should really shout-out its consumer-ed website, which makes a strong case for why folks with high-end TVs should invest in HD players.

And the Winner Is... Blu-ray, but only by default. HD DVD's approach is corny, sure, but it also provides exactly what mainstream consumers need right now: reassurance that they aren't risking hundreds of dollars by betting on one format over another. That said, incompetence on the interactive end kills the spot. Blu-ray, on the other hand, gets the wow factor right, and touts the added-value aspect by rolling its pitch into the PS3's ongoing campaign. But Sony needs to do a better job of educating consumers, or risk leaving that job entirely in the hands of retail salesmen—who, if they're honest, may very well recommend that potential buyers wait until next year, when dual-format players may finally come down into the realm of affordability.

Brendan I. Koerner is a contributing editor at Wired, a columnist for Slate, and author of the forthcoming Now the Hell Will Start. His Hype Sheet column appears every Thursday on Gizmodo.

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The Spin The crucial moment in this ad comes early on, when the turtlenecked hubby fits the Hockey template on his TV. Both narrator and caption stress that the Odyssey works with any TV, a vital point given Magnavox's earlier bungling. The very first Odyssey spots in 1972 (unavailable, alas) showed gamers using a Magnavox color TV. This created terrible confusion: Many consumers assumed that the Odyssey was only compatible with Magnavox sets, and color ones at that. So though 80,000-100,000 consoles were sold in 1972 alone, Magnavox was actually somewhat disappointed with the Odyssey's performance; the company feared that, having burned through the early adopters, it would be hard-pressed to capture the interest of mainstream consumers. This commercial, then, is all about reassuring folks that, no, you don't have to ditch your beloved black-and-white RCA in order to enjoy a spirited game of Roulette or Football.

Counterspin Despite a quick remark that the Odyssey is fun for the whole family, this ad shows only an adult couple. And while it's hard to understand the mindset of folks who were alive during Watergate, was the Odyssey such a technological wonder that it could hold the interest of thirtysomethings for hours on end? As with the TI-99/4A previously discussed in this space, the Odyssey seems like it would most enrapture gamers in the grade-school demographic—even if we'd been born in the 1940s instead of the 1970s, it's hard to picture my wife and I settling down for a fun evening of Odyssey Geography. Of course, the console's outrageous price made it the sort of item that you probably didn't want Junior messing around with: The Odyssey (including six program cards) cost $100, which is around $480 in today's dollars. And you thought the PS3 was overpriced...

Mission Accomplished Tough to say, as the estimates for Odyssey sales are all over the map. Inventor and vid-game god Ralph Baer claims that 350,000 consoles were sold between 1972 and 1975, when the original Odyssey was replaced by the new (and streamlined) Odyssey 100. Contemporary newspaper accounts, however, put the overall sales at under 300,000. Even if Baer's figure is correct, however, the Odyssey is generally regarded as a failure—not because of the technology, but because of the marketing. The initial consumer confusion over compatibility was a huge obstacle; so, too, was Magnavox's insistence on selling its hardware exclusively through Magnavox stores. (Yes, such things existed before the majority of us were born.) Lastly—and most forgivably—the Odyssey's game designers thought that people wanted electronic facsimiles of real-world games, rather than gaming challenges that couldn't be replicated in meatspace. Magnavox corrected this in the late 1970s with its Odyssey 2, which eventually featured such games as Pick Axe Pete and Quest for the Rings, but by then it was too late: The age of the Atari 2600 had arrived.

Hype-O-Meter 4 (out of 10). Too little, too late to save the doomed Odyssey. And a better marketing effort might also have saved Magnavox from its somewhat ignoble fate as a low-end Philips brands (although the company did reportedly make a mint by filing patent lawsuits against the likes of Bally-Midway). I do, however, sorta dig the husband's haircut—very Downhill Racer.

(Huge thanks to Ohbutyet for posting the video.)

Brendan I. Koerner is a contributing editor at Wired, a columnist for Slate, and author of the forthcoming Now the Hell Will Start. His Hype Sheet column appears every Thursday on Gizmodo.

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The Spin Most of Olympus's competition has focused on increasing megapixels with each passing year, on the assumption that consumers are (wrongly) obsessed with that particular spec. Olympus is breaking with this trend by stressing its optical zoom, and thus targeting a more informed type of consumer—or at least one who's been following the recent wave of megapixel debunkings. With an MSRP of just $450, the SP-560 is meant to nibble away at the Canon PowerShot line's popularity among a certain kind of shutterbug—moderately skilled amateurs who do a fair amount of globetrotting. It's a smart strategy: The margins are pretty low on sub-$300 digicams, which are geared toward families who merely want to snap Junior's birthday parties. Going after the wealthier world travelers who aren't quite ready for SLRs is a more promising avenue.

Counterspin You've got to wonder if Olympus sees its consumer camera business eventually becoming a sideline. This refocusing on the high-end amateur market coincides with the Japanese company's $1.87 billion acquisition of Gyrus, a British manufacturer of medical cameras. Olympus is already the world's biggest supplier of endoscopes; the Gyrus deal only adds fuel to speculation that Olympus wants to make medical technology its chief moneymaker. That might mean radically de-emphasizing its digicam business, and the low-end products are the likeliest candidates for the chopping blocks. This mountaineer spot, then, can be viewed as part of the company's efforts to slowly consolidate its consumer camera division, a process that may involve shedding its more affordable point-and-shoots. Perhaps Olympus is betting that camera phones will replace the likes of these sooner rather than later—a risky gamble, given a recent IDC report that found that 30 percent of camphone users are in the market for a digicam.

Mission Accomplished? Olympus is one of those brands that doesn't seem to evoke strong passions among gearheads—it operates rather quietly, rarely making splashy ads or, for that matter, awe-inspiring technological breakthroughs. (Okay, so the E-3 DSLR is pretty cool.) Will this commercial make anyone think Olympus is some sort of trailblazer? Probably not—the one-note premise quickly wears thin, and the production values are a notch or two lower than the typical Sony fare. But given Olympus's cautious track record, you have to think the company's braintrust gave careful thought to their new direction—piles of proprietary research probably tell them that cheap point-and-shoots aren't the future, so they best start polishing their brand's reputation for quality instead of value.

Hype-O-Meter 6.5 (out of 10). The 18x optical zoom is a winner, no doubt, and Olympus is an undeniably shrewd player. But I'm docking points (perhaps unfairly) because of the cellphone gaffe; couldn't they have outfitted the mountaineer with a satellite handset instead of what looks to be a Razr? Or is there some wondrous satellite flip phone out there about which I'm not yet aware?

Brendan I. Koerner is a contributing editor at Wired, a columnist for Slate, and author of the forthcoming Now the Hell Will Start. His Hype Sheet column appears every Thursday on Gizmodo.

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The Spin No one can accuse of Pioneer of acting hastily, at least in terms of launching its market assault on plasma leaders Samsung and Panasonic (who combined account for 54.2 percent of global plasma sales). Project Kuro has been in the works for about two years, and the publicity machine has been cranking at full-force since late spring—remember this highbrow teaser from May? Pioneer has taken its sweet time because it's expressly opposed to catering to the mass market—think of the brand as the anti-Vizio, committed to quality over affordability. (According to a recent Long Beach Press-Telegram article, Pioneer USA says lower Kuro prices are nowhere on the horizon.) The company is betting that there are enough luxury consumers out there to make this strategy worthwhile—a viewpoint aided by the fat margins on super-deluxe plasma TVs. Greatly helping matters, of course, is the wave of raves that have greeted the Kuro's American debut; Pioneer appears to be walking the walk on this product line.

Counterspin Pioneer's flagging TV division certainly could use a boost. The long gestation period for Project Kuro forced the company to trudge along with its PureVision plasma lineup well past the sell-by date. As a result, Pioneer's plasma sales tumbled in the first half of this year, dragging down the entire ship in the process; the company's Q2 operating income fell by nearly 80 percent versus the previous year, a tumble ascribed largely to plasma woes. Since then, Pioneer has entered into a curious sort of partnership with Sharp; the Aquos-maker is now Pioneer's single largest shareholder. This move was supposedly necessary in order to bolster Pioneer's R&D, and thus help it make good on its strategy of offering the finest TVs around. But in today's technology climate, how long will the Kuros be top-dog in terms of quality? No matter how many plaudits the line has received so far—including "Greatest Flat Panel Ever"—there's bound to be a superior competitor out there by Q4 of next year, if not sooner. Can cautious Pioneer act quickly enough to up the ante?

Takeaway Pioneer spent big bucks hiring TBWA\Chiat\Day, the agency best-known for its long relationship with Apple. It's a signal that the company is finally ready to play with the big boys, and the strategy already seems to be panning out: In Q3, Pioneer's share of the plasma market grew by 68 percent, to 6.3 percent (just behind Hitachi's 7.9 percent). The Kuros should do well this holiday season among fatcats, though the number of consumers able to splash out for a Pro 1150-HD (with an MSRP of $6,000) is obviously small. By resisting the general movement toward lower flat-panel prices, then, Pioneer is gambling that an economic slowdown doesn't affect consumers in the top five percent—and that said consumers are plentiful enough in the first place to make Project Kuro worthwhile.

Hype-O-Meter 8 (out of 10). Keep in mind that Pioneer was an also-ran in the plasma game this time last year; now the Kuro is a technophile must-have, buoyed in part by this arresting (if disturbing) ad campaign. But the next-gen of Kuros will have bring the goods, too—today's technological marvel, after all, is tomorrow's overpriced mediocrity.

Brendan I. Koerner is a contributing editor at Wired, a columnist for Slate, and author of the forthcoming Now the Hell Will Start. His Hype Sheet column appears every Thursday on Gizmodo.

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The Spin As previously noted in this space, Dell is in the midst of a lengthy rebranding campaign. In addition to veering away from the direct-sales model, the company is desperately trying to morph from budget purveyor to technological innovator—thus the recent hullabaloo over the iMac-wannabe XPS One. This ad, however, hawks Dell's more traditional XPS setup, with screen and guts separate. It's a little tough to tell, given the Iceman's subpar elocution, but the focus here still seems to be on value, Dell's old standby. Thankfully, the company has learned that the earnestness of its past value campaigns—yes, the ones featuring the irrationally exuberant kid you loved to hate—is antithetical to the new image it's trying to cultivate. And so the Iceman cometh!

Counterspin But why keep flogging the value pitch at all? It doesn't take a genius to realize that cheap desktop sales aren't going to save Dell—not with the revival of HP and the increasing market demand for laptops. (In the last quarter, according to iSuppli, laptop shipments increased by 33.5 percent versus the same period in 2006; the growth for desktops, by comparison, was an anemic 3.4 percent.) Dell would actually seem nicely poised to start touting its geek bona fides, given the raves that have been accorded its new laptop lineup. At the very least, you'd think they'd take a page from HP's playbook and talk about features—even budget-conscious consumers are pretty sophisticated nowadays. But aside from a marble-mouthed Iceman shout-out to the XPS desktop's ability to "manage your photos and music," there's little here to rehab Dell's increasingly shoddy image—an image harmed by several years of slipping quality. (Hands up everyone who had to order replacement hardware from Dell within the first year of owning an Inspiron.)

Mission Accomplished? Dell has been promising a radical overhaul since the beginning of 2007, when Lord Michael returned from his self-imposed exile to save the flailing company. In his absence, customer service had turned abysmal, bloatware had mushroomed and innovation had slowed—prior to the arrival of the XPS One, when was the last time you were really curious about a new Dell product? But what's needed now is a coherent strategy—does Dell want to battle HP in the value desktop market, or should it be shifting its attention to laptops and, perhaps, specialty machines (e.g. gaming PCs, its iMac me-too)? The Liddell ad, as well as the rest of the Star Power campaign, is really just more of the same—keeping the Dell brand in consumers' minds, no doubt, but not doing enough to change how that brand is perceived. The good news for Dell: Reinvention is a lot more attainable in the technology realm than in virtually any other industry on Earth. Just ask Apple—or even Lenovo.

Hype-O-Meter 5 (out of 10). Once you get past the small, discordant joy of seeing a notorious badass peddling PCs, there's surprisingly little substance. And Dell should have ponied up to get the Iceman some lessons with Professor Henry Higgins.

Brendan I. Koerner is a contributing editor at Wired, a columnist for Slate, and author of the forthcoming Now the Hell Will Start. His Hype Sheet column appears every Thursday on Gizmodo.

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The Spin Sirius is at a major crossroads right now, as it tries to seal its merger with XM—a merger which still awaits that all-important regulatory approval. Part of Sirius's rationale for why the merger should go forward is that there's plenty of competition nowadays from a myriad of sources—a satellite radio monopoly, the company argues, won't be harmful because consumers can also get their music fixes from online music vendors and portable devices. Sirius wouldn't mind a bit, however, if it had a healthy share of that portable market, which is currently dominated by thin rectangles that store files. The Stiletto 2 can do that, too—though the internal memory is piddling at 2GB—but the product's real hook is the Wi-Fi streaming of Sirius programs. There's also the nifty ability to store 100 hours of shows, a feature which makes the Stiletto 2 resemble an audiocentric DVR. Good stuff, though your mileage will vary according to how much you value Sirius's core properties—Stern, of course, but also the NFL and NASCAR.

Counterspin Aside from the lack of memory in which to store MP3s, the Stiletto's chief fault may be the fact that its radio capabilities are tethered to Wi-Fi. Isn't an appreciable amount of portable music listened to while on the go? So while you're roaming, if I understand things correctly, you're basically stuck with your stored music; it's not until you settle down in one place that you can listen to the satellite channels.UPDATE: My bad, I misread the specs. The 802.11g capabilities are only for when you're out of satellite range. Thanks to all the commenters who noted my goof. Pretty neat, but is that enough to convert non-subscribers? Especially seeing as how Sirius doesn't seem to be subsidizing the Stiletto 2 very much—just $30 off the MSRP, plus a month free if you sign up for a one-year subscription. That just doesn't seem like the kind of deal that's going to lure folks into giving portable satellite radio a try, now, does it?

Mission Accomplished? Sirius is right in one sense: the future of music may well be rental. The current 99-cents-per-song model is going to have problems once access to the celestial jukebox goes under $10 per month. What Sirius is offering is a step in that direction; the only problem is that with radio programming, you're still at the mercy of the DJs. On top of that, does Sirius have any plans to stream via 3G networks? That seems like a mammoth technical challenge, seeing as how we're only just now getting reliable web access for mobile users. But until Sirius can cut itself free from Wi-Fi,UPDATE: See above. Wi-Fi is backup only; my error. Apologies. In any event, Sirius is probably going to be preaching to the choir with the Stiletto—a choir that, more often than not, is going to have first encountered satellite radio as an automotive feature.

Hype-O-Meter 6 (out of 10). The Stiletto 2 is still too expensive and too light on internal memory to break big. But it's an interesting step in the right direction, toward the next generation in portable entertainment. My hope is that, at the very least, this will push Apple and Microsoft to move more quickly on perfecting mobile downloading of media. When I hear a song I like while out shopping for sneakers, by golly, I should be able to download that song right then and there—and I don't want a service provider telling me, "Sorry, we don't have that one." Someday...

Brendan I. Koerner is a contributing editor at Wired, a columnist for Slate, and author of the forthcoming Now the Hell Will Start. His Hype Sheet column appears every Thursday on Gizmodo.

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The Spin Just a few years prior to the TI-99/4A's 1981 debut, TI scored a major consumer-electronics hit with the Speak & Spell. The company's brand was thus closely identified with education applications, an advantage that it tried to press with cloying ads such as this one. TI really can't be faulted for this, as its competitors were similarly convinced that computers would become family machines—thus IBM's drive to release the disastrous PCjr. And since the computer had been dubbed "Machine of the Year" by Time in 1982, it made sense to try and tap into parental paranoia. Those of us who remember Logo lessons and CompuKids were swept up in the madness, told that we might as well resign ourselves to ditch-digging futures if we didn't learn BASIC ASAP. Except, uh, in this commercial the kid ain't even learning to write a three-line script; he's learning the letter R.

Counterspin The conventional wisdom on the TI-99/4A's failure is that it was a victim of a price war. But I'd claim that the family angle was wrong to begin with, since the limits of 1980s educational software are pretty obvious: is learning the letter R on a screen really that much different from learning it from a book? On top of that, the most important part of any budding geek's education is unfettered exploration, not convening with dad for supervised computing. (This was the era before the ubiquitous Internet, so Junior was a lot less likely to get cruised by online weirdos.) Okay, granted, three years old is a little young to figure out much. But even for older kids, there wasn't enough to do with the TI-99/4A, owing primarily to the dearth of software—a great lesson in why proprietary technology schemes can backfire. (Sony? Are you listening?)

Mission Accomplished? Obviously not, since it was only a few months after this commercial's debut that TI announced the end of its home-computer division. (The company made laptops for a while, though its line was eventually sold to Acer.) Thus began the era of the PC clone, when computing really came to the masses. (The era of the Mac, of course, was also about to dawn.) Perhaps TI could have staved that off a bit by presenting the TI-99/4A as more than a glorified Speak & Spell, but its problems ran deeper than mere marketing buffoonery. The company went wrong by locking users in to proprietary software, and by thinking that consumers cared more about brands than ease-of-use. Good thing TI had that whole semiconductor business to fall back on.

Hype-O-Meter 2.5 (out of 10). A failure in terms of selling units, of course, but there's something sweetly innocent here, too. I mean, c'mon, check out that slogan: "Creating useful services and products for you." We've come a long way.

Brendan I. Koerner is a contributing editor at Wired, a columnist for Slate, and author of the forthcoming Now the Hell Will Start. His Hype Sheet column appears every Thursday on Gizmodo.

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(Thanks to milwaukeetvmadman for posting the video.)

Rip-Off Of This campaign—which also features dazzling performances from the likes of Will and Jada—appears explicitly designed for YouTube, where similar feats of dancing wizardry are regularly displayed. I also couldn't help but think of the surprisingly tolerable You Got Served, a hyper-caffeinated, message-free version of Save the Last Dance.

The Spin We've been predicting this for years, but looks like we're about to witness the death of low-gig, standalone MP3 players—at least if Samsung and Verizon have their druthers. If the venerable Charles can flourish with a combo phone in lieu of a digital audio player, so can you, right? Beyond that, this commercial's notable for its surprising cultural awareness, albeit an awareness that may irk music snobs. Verizon's ad agency, McCann Erickson, was trying to create an obvious link between the Juke and Chicago Juke, the Windy City's latest take on house music and its attendant footwork. Alas, as several YouTube commenters have pointed out, Hardnox doesn't really make pure juke—not enough electro zing—and they're not from Chicago. This will, of course, only bother about 0.005 percent of viewers—the overwhelming reaction to the music seems to be, "Great song, can I buy it?" Moral of the story: sometimes it doesn't pay to be 100 percent authentic.

Counterspin Contrast this ad with Samsung's relentlessly mainstream pitch for the Juke, which features Foreigner's geezerific "Jukebox Hero." The Samsung spot also ladles out the product porn, with the camera sweeping across the phone's screen to reveal the sound meter a-pulsing, and some nice action shots of the Juke's switchblade-like opening mechanism. Meanwhile, you can't even really tell what's in Charles' hand while he's juking—it's only the ad copy that gives it away. It's always a gamble when you refuse to highlight the very thing you're supposedly peddling: Do it well and you're a creative genius, do it poorly and you might as well have tossed your client's money in a bonfire.

Takeaway McCann Erickson succeeds here precisely because it trusts the sophistication of younger consumers. The site tease at the end is sufficient to drive intrigued viewers to Verizonwireless.com for further info. And bet on lots of folks being intrigued, given the lure of Hardnox's music (available as an exclusive Verizon ringtone, natch) and Charles' gobsmacking agility (which inspired me to seek out other examples of juke brilliance). But caveat emptor on at least one important point: the Juke can't play DRM-protected songs, which means you'll have to hold on to your shuffle if you've got an iTunes-heavy music library.

Hype-O-Meter 9 (out of 10). A handful of snobs may grumble, but it's impressive to see Verizon promoting Chicago Juke, a creative phenomenon that's deserving of a much wider audience. Hope it's not long 'til Alltel or its peers fight back with ads featuring Baltimore club—perhaps on behalf of the ROKR Z6? Lord knows that phone could use some help.

Brendan I. Koerner is a contributing editor at Wired, a columnist for Slate, and author of the forthcoming Now the Hell Will Start. His Hype Sheet column appears every Thursday on Gizmodo.

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Rip-Off Of Sort of a cross between a conventional Bollywood musical and the Elvis Presley vehicle Jailhouse Rock. Suffice to say that the spot's not meant to translate well to different markets—if they ran this ad during an NFL game, for example, Acer would become an instant Stateside laughingstock. (Especially with that clumsy dubbing—an unavoidable consequence, I gather, of Acer's goal of doing Hindi, Tamil, and Bengali versions of the spot, too.)

The Spin It's no secret that India's the vaunted Next Big Thing for computer makers, owing to its rapid economic growth and technophilic middle class. But for too long, many Indian consumers have settled for native brands such as HCL, whose laptops are notoriously fickle. Those two incarcerated geeks in the ad? Note how their screens are flashing all sorts of gobbeldygook—that's Acer taking a swipe at HCL's alleged penchant for head-scratching software schemes. Also, don't think Hrithik Roshan came cheap—he's a bigtime star who surely commanded a sizeable endorsement fee. Taiwan-based Acer obviously senses a major opportunity in India, as well as a pressing need to head-off archrival Lenovo at the pass.

Counterspin It took a few viewings, but I finally got what Acer's pushing here: a software suite formally known as Empowering Technology, which lets users set-up quick launch commands and other shortcuts. While I'm sure Acer's intentions were noble, this is exactly the sort of infantilizing measure that tends to aggravate users rather than help them—and, yes, that includes newbies. Acer vets have mostly carped about eTechnology, while notebook forums are littered with system-performance complaints. Once again, a computer manufacturer may have grossly underestimated the acumen of consumers.

Takeaway According to Gartner, laptop sales in India were up 74 percent in the first half of this year, versus the same time period in 2006. Things should get even frothier real soon, thanks to a recent, extremely esoteric court decision that's going to reduce tariffs on imported laptops. So you can see why Acer's going full-bore in India, hiring the likes of Roshan instead of going the usual spokesmodel route. The big question now is whether Indian consumers will prioritize price or performance. HCL is already striking back, by announcing the development of an ultra-cheap laptop line called Classmate PC. And HP's heavy in the mix, having opened a new Delhi factory earlier this year. Acer's definitely making a name for itself with the Gemstone lineup, but the competition for rupees is gonna be fierce.

Hype-O-Meter 4.5 (out of 10). Note that this is virtually impossible for a Westerner like myself to grade an ad like this, since I can barely sit through five minutes worth of Bollywood dreck. (A more learned observer hates this spot with a fiery passion.) But nice to see Roshan pop up again, after catching his utterly incomprehensible Dhoom 2 on my trip to India last year.

Brendan I. Koerner is a contributing editor at Wired, a columnist for Slate, and author of the forthcoming Now the Hell Will Start. His Hype Sheet column appears every Thursday on Gizmodo.

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Rip-Off Of This is a very YouTube Era ad, and I'm willing to bet that the creators glimpsed themselves a few clips of truly awful dancing before coming up with the concept. But in terms of Madison Avenue antecedents, the one that immediately pops to mind is the classic Bud Light "Parrot" ad, in which a ditz learns her potential one-night-stand's true feelings. No dancing in that one, but oh-so-much humiliation.

The Spin Notice how there are no technical details in this ad—it instead follows the old writer's adage of "show, don't tell." Jonathan's nudity actually serves an important purpose, as it makes clear that there are no wires of any kind on his person. And there's a clever shot towards the end that flicks at the headset's non-music capabilities, specifically its ability to receive mobile calls. Sure, a non-geek will have no clue that Bluetooth is the technology in question, or what sort of range they might reasonably expect between headset and personal audio player. (This detailed review says upwards of 10 meters.) But the ad is really just a come-hither for the product's cleanly designed promo site, on which all is explained in relatively plain English.

Counterspin It's always a risk for ads to choose a doofus as their de facto pitchman. Let's face it, none of us would like to be caught dancing around naked—and attempting to copulate with a slab of granite!—while our mom's prune-skinned friends looked on in horror. On the most literal level, this commercial equates ownership of the product with hopeless loserdom—why is this cat living with his mom in the first place, given that he looks closer to 21 than 15? Philips is obviously just trying to use humor to raise product awareness, but it needs to tread lightly—there's a fine line between a sharp joke and the sort of humiliation that forces you to avert your eyes.

Takeaway This commercial was apparently made for the European market, which explains the fleeting nudity; if this appeared on primetime TV in the U.S., the uproar might rival that which accompanied Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction. But if Jonathan's naughty bits could be blanked out, this would play great on these shores—and Philips might move some of those wireless headsets, too. I'm actually surprised at the dearth of Bluetooth 'phones on the streets of New York; when people invest in nicer earphones, they usually seem to plunk for noise-canceling options rather than going wireless. Not having tested these Philips cans personally, I can't really comment on their sound quality. But it's got to be better than the iPod/Zune/Zen factory 'phones, plus there's the added bonus of one-touch switching 'twixt music and phone calls. It's an innovation that's been around for a while, sure, but it's going to require some mass-marketing to break through. Maybe Philips is finally on the case.

Hype-O-Meter 9 (out of 10). Yes, the more obvious approach would've been to have a jiggly girl in a leotard do the dancing. But the humor works here, primarily because the main actor reminds me of Spud of Trainspotting. If nothing else, I'm now curious to test out the headset myself—what more can a one-minute commercial hope for?

Brendan I. Koerner is a contributing editor at Wired, a columnist for Slate, and author of the forthcoming Now the Hell Will Start. His Hype Sheet column appears every Thursday on Gizmodo.

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Rip-Off Of This is a rare instance in which a company is, uh, basically ripping off itself. I can't recall another instance in which the basic premise of a previous campaign's TV spots was retained, but the pitch details were altered so significantly. Almost makes me wonder if AT&T's ad agency originally set this up as yet another dropped-calls commercial, then was handed different marching orders at the last moment.

The Spin With its high-end wireless business humming thanks to the iPhone, AT&T is now going after low-end customers by flaunting its value options. Playing up those Rollover minutes is just one piece of the puzzle—the company is also revamping its contracts to make them less draconian, as well as offering a new buy-one-get-on-free Nokia deal. AT&T obviously smells blood in the water, as Sprint continues to hemorrhage dissatisfied customers. True, AT&T is still near the bottom of the brand-loyalty tables, and its customer churn lags behind that of Verizon. But things can change awfully rapidly in the wireless biz.

Counterspin Perhaps the AT&T bigwigs merely decided that their "fewest dropped calls" slogan had run its course. But I've got to think that outside pressure played a major role—no question that the company was playing fast and loose with the truth, especially in light of the latest J.D. Power survey. AT&T could have stuck to its guns by trumpeting its $2.5 billion effort to buy licenses in the 700-MHz frequency. But that plan isn't going to bear fruit for some time—and even when it does, expect the iPhone-lovin' crowd to benefit first, rather than the budget-conscious masses.

Takeaway Ad gurus have blasted AT&T for dropping the Cingular brand, which took billions of dollars to build. The latest quarterly results are a point in the Ma Bell progeny's favor, though—aside from making bank off the iPhone, AT&T is effectively reducing its customer churn. This ad should help, as Rollover can be a good deal (despite some fine-print drawbacks, such as the fact that minutes don't start carrying 'til your second billing period). The spot may lack novelty, but it's mildly funny and to-the-point: It'll definitely catch the attention of a lot of aggrieved cellphone customers, especially those who've suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous overages. Like Alltel, AT&T seems to have realized that low-end customers are resigned to the ineradicability of spotty service, and merely want to pay as little as possible.

Hype-O-Meter 7.5 (out of 10). The trademarked Rollover promo may turn out to be Cingular's most valuable legacy. Also, gotta love the way the degenerate gambler nervously glances around after revealing his loss; almost looks like he expects to get smacked upside the head, despite his wife being hundreds or thousands of miles away. Guess we know who wears the pants in that relationship.

Brendan I. Koerner is a contributing editor at Wired, a columnist for Slate, and author of the forthcoming Now the Hell Will Start. His Hype Sheet column appears every Thursday on Gizmodo.

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Rip-Off Of Haven't manufacturers of cheap, swilly beer been using the lost-in-the-desert scenario for ages? Although their spots usually end with the protagonist discovering a trove of Bud Light and lots of jiggly girls in teddys, which I'd say are far more desirable prizes than a lesson about the new BladeCenter's operating temperature.

The Spin Unbeknownst to most of the millions of baseball fans who've recently been bombarded by this ad, IBM is taking an overt swipe at HP, maker of the rival BladeSystem. It's IBM's recent contention that HP's blade servers run too hot, and thus fry memory chips at an alarming rate. HP, of course, begs to differ, claiming that its own lab tests have fingered BladeCenters as the scorchers of the two. Trouble is, HP doesn't have a semi-comical commercial vouching for the BladeSystems' relative frigidity. So point to IBM for simply recognizing that, yes, there are IT geeks with purchasing power who watch pro sports. Will HP counter with mainstream advertising of its own, or will it continue working the drab trade-mag channels? With tens or hundreds of millions dollars at stake, it shouldn't be long till we see a counter from HP—perhaps the company still has Gwen Stefani under contract? I'd love to hear her salient BladeSystem thoughts.

Counterspin First off, the ad itself is a typical one for IBM as of late: stylish, for sure, but guilty of leaving painfully little to the imagination. If it's true that geeks aren't fond of abstractions, well, then I guess this is perfect—they pretty much club you over the head with the message, much like in that dreadful "The Heist" ad from a few months back. Secondly, is IBM grasping at straws by choosing to emphasize the BladeCenters' literal coolness, of all things? HP certainly seems to think so, claiming that its rival is "panicking" due to weak sales.

Takeaway The real story here seems to be the hawking of enterprise hardware to the masses. It's one thing for enterprise vendors to advertise in The Economist, quite another for them to run jokey spots during Games 3 and 4 of the ALCS. The slide in blade prices has a lot to do with that; the BladeCenter S system, set to launch on December 1, will sell for a paltry $2,599. With the hardware now so cheap, perhaps CIOs and their ilk feel a lot more comfortable about putting the purchasing decisions in the hands of their lower-level IT staffers—hey, even if the geeks in the basement mess up, it's no monumental loss. Still, I'd like to think your run-of-the-mill IT pro has a slightly sharper sense of humor than IBM's giving him/her credit for.

Hype-O-Meter 5.5 (out of 10). I was tempted to grade it lower because of the irritating lack of imagination, but at least the spot's message is clear and concise. And I'm actually sort of excited about a future in which enterprise hardware is pitched during sporting events—good to know my forthcoming son might live in a world in which Julio Jones is someday hired to endorse the Sun Constellation System.

Brendan I. Koerner is a contributing editor at Wired, a columnist for Slate, and author of the forthcoming Now the Hell Will Start. His Hype Sheet column appears every Thursday on Gizmodo.

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Rip-Off Of You might recall that Apple went in this direction once before, during its much-lauded "Switch" campaign from a few years back—c'mon, I know y'all remember the stoned, emo splendor of Ellen Feiss (now appearing in a random flick called Bed and Breakfast). But the vibe with Doug and his campaign mates is even more minimalist, with no soundtrack and that stark black background. It's like Doug is speaking from some sort of gadget confessional.

The Spin In contrast to the typical Apple gadget ad, which centers around close-ups of the product in question, the focus here is entirely on a real, live human user. The ad-world chestnut 'bout this approach is, "Putting a human face on [x]," where x is something which consumers still find slightly scary or baffling. Not y'all, of course, since Gizmodo's readership consists primarily of early adopters. But that guy in the next cubicle who still insists that the Razr is the best phone he's ever used? He's probably still a little skeptical as to why he should spend $399 (and likely change networks) in order to join the iPhone wave, and the disembodied hands of the debut ad didn't convince him otherwise. But, hey, this Doug character and him have a lot in common! They both hate deadbeats, as well as rambling voicemails! If Doug's a convert, maybe there's something to this iPhone mania after all...

Counterspin There's really only one thing that bugs me about this ad: the closing shot, in which the true on-the-street nature of Doug's monologue is revealed. To be honest, I never doubted the fact that Doug was, in fact, an authentic iPhone user, rather than a paid actor. (I don't think any scriptwriter could be clever enough to use the word "advancement" to create a veneer of realism.) So the end is the commercial equivalent of a joke teller elbowing you in the ribs and going, "Get it? Get it?" Yes, TBWA/Chiat/Day, I get it.

Takeaway There's been considerable debate as to whether iPhone sales have met expectations, with opinions often varying according to one's predetermined view of Apple. The more interesting question, though, is how the iPhone will sell in the coming months, not that the initial mania has died down. The price cut has obviously helped, despite blowback from early adopters who felt shafted (and weren't mollified by Apple's subsequent attempt to make amends). But to keep sales steady, even growing, Apple has to reach into that second tier of consumers—folks who may not be technophobes, but also won't buy a gadget merely because it's the latest and greatest. The Doug ad and its campaign mates are Apple's attempt to demonstrate specific ways in which the iPhone can make life easier, beyond just providing access to the "real" internet. Call it old-school salesmanship, targeting a demographic that doesn't fetishize tech like all y'all, and prefers concrete concepts to abstractions.

Hype-O-Meter 7.5 (out of 10). I was all set to slag this spot, but it grew on me after repeated viewings. Dorky, sure, but also a smart approach that addresses a specific goal of Apple's. Still, how about doing one of these with a buxom, honey-voiced female iPhone devotee? That would truly be a best-of-both-worlds strategy.

Brendan I. Koerner is a contributing editor at Wired, a columnist for Slate, and author of the forthcoming Now the Hell Will Start. His Hype Sheet column usually appears every Thursday on Gizmodo, though this week's it's on a Wednesday. Sorry.

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Rip-Off Of The lingering, gorgeous shots of urban minutiae are pure art school, as is the lion's share of the head-scratching narration. There's really no good ad-biz comparison that pops to mind, but whoever directed this spot has likely spent some time watching Floating Weeds. And reading weepy, painfully earnest poetry while sipping port.

The Spin Sony is obviously going whole-hog on the HD bandwagon, as evidenced by its executives' latest statements. The company is committed to making three-quarters of its products HD-compatible by next March. That means getting technophobic consumers comfortable with high definition and its attendant price premiums. This commercial can thus be viewed as part of a hearts-and-minds campaign, trying to inform Joe Q. Public that "high definition" isn't just something to consider when purchasing a TV. Rather, it's a feature to look for when buying any new electronic gadget, from a digicam to a gaming console to a laptop. And Sony is here to kit you out in full—whether you like it or not, since they lock you in with proprietary tech.

Counterspin It's one thing to be avant garde, quite another to be obtuse. This spot holds your interest precisely because it's a little baffling—rather like Sony itself, which has historically undermined itself by insisting on proprietary formats no matter what the market's response. (ATRAC3 and Memory Sticks, anyone?) And thus I'm torn—while I appreciate the artistry of this ad, it's so lacking in humor or humanity that it comes off as fairly cold. Give me the Bravia or great robot commercials instead, both of which do a far better job of associating Sony with cutting-edge tech. The girl in the red raincoat? Not so much, especially if you're viewing her on a non-HD screen.

Takeaway The next 12 months will be critical for Sony. Against many expectations—including those of your humble narrator—Blu-ray seems to be hanging in there so far (despite Paramount's defection to the HD-DVD camp). That's no small feat, given how Sony pretty much botched the PS3 rollout by overpricing. So this may be a case in which Sony's excellent engineering trumps its typical marketing miscues. But with HD-DVD hardware prices set to really come down, can Sony keep cruising on its (alleged) quality edge? As someone who was alive (although not fully sentient) during the VHS-versus-Betamax conflict, you have to wonder whether history is about to repeat itself. And if Blu-ray stalls, what will that mean for this whole HD World strategy?

Hype-O-Meter 7 (out of 10). A hard ad to judge, given its deliberate obtuseness—your mileage will vary greatly. But it succeeds in its goal of spreading the word that HD isn't just for TVs anymore. And I'll confess to sort of enjoying the art-school vibe—makes me feel brainier than I really am.

Rip-Off Of I immediately thought back to Nike's excellent "Skateboarding is Not a Crime" campaign from a few years back, in which joggers and tennis players were subjected to the various indignities suffered by America's skaters. Same handheld camerawork, same sharp wit, albeit in the service of products that are much easier for Joe Q. Public to process.

The Spin There's a notoriously high level of turnover amongst CIOs, a.k.a. "career is over." This is in part due to burnout issues, but also because CIOs can so easily take the fall for massive hardware investments gone wrong. Microsoft's knows there's less apparent risk in software fixes, a point it's stressing with this whole "VoIP As You Are" campaign. No, Microsoft isn't really suggesting that investing in a host of new PBXs will result in crushed cars or other incidents of hilarious/tragic property destruction. But it's driving home the message that going VoIP needn't be as complicated as it sounds, and that going the software route can be a career-saver. (Check out the flustered IT geek atop the office building at the commercial's end—he is so fired.)

Counterspin A software-only solution to VoIPing a business sounds great, but that means everything is dependent on the quality of the code. As a result, a lot's riding on the industry's initial response to Microsoft's Office Communication Server 2007, slated for its formal, hype-splashed debut in a little under three weeks. Forgive me if this sounds a bit cynical, but there are bound to be some serious growing pains for OCS—there's no reason to expect fewer bugs than in Vista, right? And one can reasonably argue that voice is even more important to a lot of businesses than data. True, old-style telephony ain't perfect, either. But Microsoft is asking for an awful lot of trust here, which those of us who've gone bonkers over driver woes may not be so quick to grant.

Takeaway As this article points out, a lot of enterprise customers recognize that VoIP is the future, but surprisingly few have actually made the switch. Microsoft has been smart to identify why CIOs and their crews are reticent about doing so—namely, that they're loathe to purchase bulky hardware, perhaps because it attracts the unwanted scrutiny of the CEO and his minions. (As this commercial so ably demonstrates, you're a lot likelier to notice a mess o' PBXs coming through the front door than a bunch of CDs.) A pick-it-and-forget-it software solution certainly sounds grand. But as Yankee Group analyst Zeus Kerravala so artfully puts it, "There will be some quality issues as the product matures." I'll bet.

Hype-O-Meter 9 (out of 10). The crane operator high-tailing from the accident is priceless, as is the reaction of the appalled oldster behind the car. (He looks as if someone just spoiled the plot of a Murder, She Wrote episode.) The first funny Microsoft commercial in memory, and an effective—if somewhat information-free—word-spreader for its VoIP gamble.

Brendan I. Koerner is a contributing editor at Wired, a columnist for Slate, and author of the forthcoming Now the Hell Will Start. His Hype Sheet column appears every Thursday on Gizmodo.

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Rip-Off Of Um, every other iPod ad that's ever been produced in the history of mankind? No narration, an earworm of a song that's been bubbling beneath the Top 40 and clever highlighting of features—in this case, the nano's video capabilities. Other than that, I can only say that Feist's outfit is reminiscent of something from the roller-rink scene in Switchblade Sisters.

The Spin Apple obviously feels that the mobile-video era is finally upon us, after several false (or at least lukewarm) starts. The NBC mess aside, iTunes is doing well with its TV show downloads. And those technonauts over in South Korea—the gadget world's coal-mine canaries—are ga-ga over M-video. At the same time, consumers have become less and less willing to lug around the full-sized iPods of yore; as the somewhat surprising success of the clip-on iPod shuffles has proven, ultra-portability is more of a priority than Apple may have initially realized.

Counterspin There's a certain Teflon quality to Apple's iPod lineup—no matter how many technical glitches the products have, demand never seems to subside. That's in large part because the iTunes store has such a lockdown on the pay-per-unit music market right now—71 percent is the last figure I saw, though I wouldn't be surprised if it's actually a bit higher. So there just isn't that much incentive for Apple to get things right, nor to crack the whip on its ad agency to take risks. As Gizmodo overlord Brian Lam noted in his lengthy review of the nano, the screen is dreadful with wide-format vids, and there have been copious reports of weak battery life, third-party compatibility issues and crooked screens. And yet Apple can't produce these things fast enough.

Takeaway We here at Gizmodo are often accused of excessive Apple fanboydom. (In fact, I'll bet the comments section will be stuffed with several such allegations, from people who merely saw the "Apple" tag without actually reading the column.) But the laziness of this ad is sort of irritating, if only because I've become disenchanted with the iPod lineup. My last nano suffered a massive, fatal disk failure right out of the box, and the replacement has lots of irritating quirks—a sticky click wheel, ruts in which it skips from song to song without prompting. I know I'm not alone in these complaints, and I'd switch to another player if I could find a similarly sized competitor I like. (I've actually toyed with the idea of going with an off-brand knock-off next time, though the warranty situation skeeves me out.) But for the moment, Apple's got me, grumbles and all. And with millions more like me in its pocket, why should the company bother with better ads—or, for that matter, with fixing little performance issues when it's easier for 'em to just swap out dead players (and make bank off AppleCare).

Hype-O-Meter 4.5 (out of 10). Feist's song is appealing, and the ad competently highlights the player's video capabilities. But this advertising riff is getting pretty stale, as is Apple's lackluster quality control.

Brendan I. Koerner is a contributing editor at Wired and a columnist for both The New York Times and Slate. His Hype Sheet column appears every Thursday on Gizmodo.

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Rip-Off Of Sort of a magical realist version of Kate Winslet's AMEX commercial from a few years back, with the focus entirely on an attractive woman's musings as she strolls through a stylish urban milieu. There's also more than a hint of American Beauty in the opening shot—instead of roses, Stefani is peppered with photographs (printed out, one presumes, on an HP Photosmart).

The Spin HP may be veering away from its "The Computer is Personal Again" campaign with this ad, but the message remains the same: Our PCs are an artist's best friend. By enlisting Stefani as a spokeswoman, the company is obviously going for a very specific demographic—high-school and college girls of the sort who walk around with sketchbooks and spend their excess cash at bead stores and Anthropologie. This group has rarely been targeted by the tech industry in the past, so HP senses that such young consumers are ripe for the taking. And the Stefani-themed website that accompanies the ad is just as important as the ad itself; if HP can hold those girlish eyeballs with Gwen's art projects, they've got a good shot at selling some extra dv2500ts this semester.

Counterspin Did the ad's writers go a bit too pretentious with Stefani's voiceover? She's obviously a talented woman, but c'mon—does she really take herself this seriously? The commenters over at The A.V. Club have been having a field day with this spot, picking apart Stefani's use of the term "mashup" as well as her laughable, commerce-only embrace of Rastafarianism. (Best dis over there: "Like Courtney Love, but for kids.") I'm not going to be so hard on the ad—hey, the filled-out rugby shirt just does it for me—but HP really fumbled on the companion website. It's slow and confusingly laid out, and the projects are underwhelming. True, I'm not a 15-year-old girl, but I've got to think that today's teens will find limited entertainment value in printing out greeting cards that announce "Music is My Homegirl."

Takeaway These are heady times for HP, which is making a strong comeback from the days of focusing exclusively on the value market. And the company totally has the right idea in trying to create some synergy between TV and the web; too many admen just use the web as a frill, rather than as an integral part of their marketing. But HP doesn't quite get the online experience right this time. There's too little of Stefani—the reason those young female consumers will be visiting in the first place—and the interactive elements are lackluster. Most annoying: The fact that HP uses the site to try and sell a 36-page photo album from Stefani's latest world tour, for the sky-high price of $29.99. Feel the gouge, Stefani fans.

Hype-O-Meter 6 (out of 10). Yeah, I'm a softie when it comes to artists musing about their craft—even artists as shamelessly commercial as Stefani. But the poor execution on the website really rankles.

Brendan I. Koerner is a contributing editor at Wired and a columnist for both The New York Times and Slate. His Hype Sheet column appears every Thursday on Gizmodo.

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Rip-Off Of The movie version of High Fidelity, though John Cusack's character had the good sense not to toss his vinyl for a woman's love—a tradeoff that can only end in tears. (I'll confess, though, that Penelope is a few degrees hotter than Iben Hjejle.)

The Spin Radio Shack is trying to mimic Home Depot's strategy—that is, portraying itself as a project-solving center rather than just another off-the-shelf retailer. I guess they've come to realize that the cellphone game isn't the future, not least of all because wireless carriers' stores are eating their lunch. Hence the shift to helping you not only purchase electronic goods, but also figure out what combination of gadgets you need to accomplish specific tasks. And, hey, who better to help you out with a long list of irritating questions than a helpful Radio Shack salesman? Because we all know what a joy it is to ask a Shack employee something other than, "Can you please sign me up for the most overpriced cellphone contract possible?"

Counterspin If you're going to market your expertise, it's advisable to demonstrate that expertise in your commercial, no? Yet the Shack totally botches this one, starting with the timing problem. Loverboy here has, at minimum, 2,000 records in his apartment. Assuming each record has an hour of music, that's 120,000 minutes of music he's gotta digitize, a task that would take him over 83 days of nonstop work. Doesn't look like his girlfriend is packed for a three-month trip, does it? On top of that, um, doesn't Radio Shack's solution (new laptop plus cables plus iPod dock) strike you as a wee bit 2004? What, they don't carry anything along the lines of these? Finally—and this really gets my goat—no self-respecting vinyl junkie stacks his LPs from floor-to-ceiling, as is shown in one of the ad's first frames. Though I guess I shouldn't be too surprised that the Shack doesn't keep it real.

Takeaway These are trying times for Radio Shack, with Citigroup recently recommending that investors sell the company's stock. So you've got to applaud the Shack's brain trust for recognizing that stay-the-course isn't the best strategy right now. But, seriously, do they really want to emphasize the part of their business—customer service—that is notoriously abysmal? Perhaps if the current "Do Stuff" campaign was accompanied by a true reinvention of the Shack's approach to sales—say, by doing away with commissions, or not trying so hard to push cellphone plans above all else—then there'd be something there. But judging by my last few visits, that's simply not the case—Godspeed to anyone who tries to buy a heatsink at the Radio Shack on W. 125 Street in Manhattan. (Stock response to every heatsink question: "I have no idea.") Factor in the annoying technical ignorance and anti-analog bias of this commercial, and you've got a real clunker for the ages.

Hype-O-Meter 1.5 (out of 10). Half-a-point for Penelope's undeniable hotness—anyone know if she's appeared in anything else? But aside from that, wow, the Shack is on the schneid.

Brendan I. Koerner is a contributing editor at Wired and a columnist for both The New York Times and Slate. His Hype Sheet column appears every Thursday on Gizmodo.

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Rip-Off Of Given the kiddie target audience, the first connection I made was with that great The Muppet Movie scene in which Animal fries everyone ears with his roaring sound check. (Okay, that's partially an excuse just to link to this Dr. Teeth vid.) But the ad-world granddad of these sorts of spots has to be the classic Memorex commercials, in which a wall of sound blows a yuppie's martini right into his waiting hand.

The Spin Those of y'all with massive subwoofers, or at least a passing familiarity with the THX sound tests of yore, know the deal: Dolby Digital bestows a fat, loud bottom end to any cinematic soundtrack. Yes, even the beating of tiny bee's wings sounds awesome in Dolby Digital, which gives you every reason to look for the brand name when you shop for your next HD DVD and/or Blu-ray player. (It's usually emblazoned on the upper right corner of the faceplate, Joe Q. Public.) Because that's what this promo is really about—getting the next generation of consumers accustomed to the concept of Dolby technologies being the be-all and end-all of audio perfection. As they say in the ad biz, if you win a customer's loyalty before the age of 16, you've got 'em for hooked life.

Counterspin It's no accident, though, that Dolby's latching its brand-building promo to a movie with obvious cross-cultural appeal. Judging by the transcript of Dolby Labs' Q3 conference call, the moneymen are wondering how the company will ensure that the digital cinemas of the developing world—especially those in India and China—come to rely on Dolby 3D, which is ostensibly the company's future cash cow. Despite its apparent digi-audio hegemony, Dolby is actually at something of a crossroads—a few years hence, digital projection will be the rule in cinemas worldwide, and the company wants to make sure it's got a jump on selling to vendors who'll be making the transition from celluloid. Never mind that the real money is to be made in the home market—theaters continue to be the glamour realm, so that's where Dolby has to ensure that its brand remains strong.

Takeaway Love him or hate him, John C. Dvorak recently made a sharp observation regarding Dolby Labs: on your first Walkman, the noise reduction technology was pointedly called Dolby noise reduction. Yes, the company that Ray Dolby built has been aggressively branding itself for decades now, for the express purpose of making sure that consumers look for the Dolby name when purchasing third-party audio equipment (and thus ensuring that licensing fees remain fat). That seems to be the real money-maker for that company, as opposed to licensing for professional cinema. But just as kids are more likely to purchase a sneaker if it's endorsed by Michael VickGilbert Arenas, consumers are more likely to buy an HD DVD that prominently boasts a technology trumpeted at the local megaplex. This may seem like a trifling point nowadays, given that no one in their right mind would buy a player that can't support the AC-3 codec. But, hey, it's never too early to start worrying about 2018, right?

Hype-O-Meter 7 (out of 10). Dolby's on a roll, and this is a surefire brand builder in the U.S. But will cinemas in the developing world really pay for Dolby 3D, or are the Lords of Guangdong already developing lower-cost alternatives for digital cinema? Branding works best, after all, when the margins between the "real deal" and the knock-off are pretty thin. Make that margin too wide, and cinema operators in Golmud won't become devoted customers.

Brendan I. Koerner is a contributing editor at Wired and a columnist for both The New York Times and Slate. His Hype Sheet column appears every Thursday on Gizmodo.

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Is this low-end HDTV brand—the Q2 LCD-TV sales champ in North America charming Joe Sixpack with its tongue-in-cheek ad campaign? Or are consumers destined to choose quality over value, no matter how riotous Vizio's ads may be?

Rip-Off Of There's a certain fast-food quality to this ad—wasn't there a Mickey D's commercial some years back in which the actors searched for any ol' excuse to cram Quarter Pounders down their gullets? The comparison may be particularly apt because Vizios are meant to be somewhat disposable—not quite iPod disposable, perhaps, but I don't think anyone expects their Vizio Gallevia 42" is going to last for the ages. Hey, at a mere $599 per basic set, why not upgrade every few years?

The Spin "Vizio is making HDTV a possibility for everyone," the narrator quips at the commercial's end, thereby encapsulating the brand's entire philosophy in a mere 20 syllables. Everyone's been waiting around for LCD prices to drop, but progress has been painfully slow. Sure, they've come down a little, but all-too-rarely into three-digit territory, which is what 85 percent of consumers would consider remotely affordable. Now here comes Vizio—under the slogan "Where Vision Meets Value"—offering sets that cost less than half of comparably sized Samsungs or Sharps. Now, everyone knows they're gonna have to upgrade from tube sets sooner rather than later, especially with the end of analog television (theoretically) less than two years away. Vizio is one of the first brands to make us short-armed, deep-pocket types think, "Huh, why not make the move now?" After all, it's not like Samsung et al. appear in a hurry to manufacture truly affordable HDTV options.

Counterspin Notice how they don't actually show you any images flickering on those Vizio sets? Makes you wonder if they've got some quality issues to hide. And they do, of course—even satisfied consumers have noted such woes as color bleed and underwhelming backlighting (particularly on those over-42" sets). I don't think Vizio will argue that its sets performs as well as those of higher-end competitors; their argument, instead, is that there's no point in paying twice as much for performance that's just, say, 20 percent better. In other words, it's the classic value-brand argument. But raise your hand if you haven't wished, at least once, that you paid for the "real thing" instead of the private label alternative. Anyone?

Takeaway Vizio's mediocre specs will never impress the Gizmodo crowd, but the general public begs to differ: The brand's LCD-TV shipments were up a whopping 76.4 percent last quarter. Vizios are being end-cabbed at Wal-Marts nationwide, which means they'll get a first look from a lot of consumers—and those consumers, having heard for years that you've got to spend upwards of $1,000 for a big-screen HDTV, will be duly impressed. But Vizio shouldn't get too comfortable with its recent success—as Dell or Gateway know well, budget-conscious consumers will turn on you if the service isn't there. And already there are some grumblings about poor retail-level warranties—Costco has gotten a lot of flack—and an unusually high number of returns due to defects. Folks may be willing to put up with a little color bleed for the sake of joining the HDTV Club, but they might not countenance being placed on hold for 58 minutes while trying to return their malfunctioning Maximus.

Hype-O-Meter 6.5 (out of 10). Not a highly imaginative ad, but effective at communicating Vizio's core message. However, I still can't help thinking about the passer-by who'll get squashed by the TV tumbling off the balcony. A ghoulish touch to an otherwise lighthearted spot.

Brendan I. Koerner is a contributing editor at Wired and a columnist for both The New York Times and Slate. His Hype Sheet column appears every Thursday on Gizmodo.

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Rip-Off Of The office milieu, complete with goofy coworkers, borrows from Sierra Mist's mildly funny "combover" ad, as well as the likes of Dilbert et al. The very literal interpretation of rock-and-roll fandom, meanwhile, is woefully unimaginative, nicked from those "wacky" Entertainment Tonight segments shot at sci-fi conventions. Note to Verizon: The Angus Young costume gag was funny the first 900 times someone used it for Halloween; 901 broke the camel's back.

The Spin Finally getting AC/DC to sell digital music is, granted, something of a coup; the band has long resisted iTunes entreaties, holding out for a sweetheart deal befitting its broad appeal. (As one of my classic-rocker pals once sagely pointed out, AC/DC had produced some of history's most unobjectionable party music.) Getting AC/DC on VCast, then, is a point in the service's favor, as it strives to become a reason for consumers to switch to Verizon. Sure, we're talking about a band whose glory days were 30 years (and one singer) ago, but can't knock those Back in Black sales—440,000 copies of that classic were purchased last year, all in hard media form.

Counterspin So many sins of omission in this ad. Start with the fact, previously noted on Gizmodo, that only one AC/DC song ("You Shook Me All Night Long") will actually be available for over-the-air download. Aside from that, you can only download full albums (rather than single tracks) to your PC, using the VCast store—yeah, I didn't know it existed either. On top of that, this is a limited-time offer, expiring in March of next year. After that, there's a chance that AC/DC could bolt and sell its back catalog to an even higher bidder—while you've still got months to go on your contract, sucker. But the worst part is the walled garden-ness of it all—just as the internet is becoming truly mobile, Verizon wants to pull us back to a controlled yesteryear? How short-sighted.

Takeaway Does Verizon really believe that exclusive deals like this will lure new customers? I'll wager that 98 percent of the consumers who bought Back in Black in '06 were teenagers, a demographic that either lets their folks pick the cell plan, or just go for pre-paid deals. Beyond that, the advantages here are meager—the albums still cost $12, whether you're getting a classic or one of the newer, dreckier ones. (Stiff Upper Lip is every bit as disappointing as it sounds.) Okay, so there will be some exclusive concert clips and the like. But at this point in AC/DC's evolution, I'd like to think that anyone who really cares 'bout such things gets their video fixes from the web; AC/DC is musical comfort food, not a band that folks are just dying to keep tabs on 24/7. Verizon would be well-advised to start thinking about how to partner with existing digimusic services, like AT&T has done with eMusic. I just can't see VCast being the future, no matter how much the online store gets beefed up.

Hype-O-Meter 2 (out of 10). This ad avoids a lower rating simply because, hey, I like AC/DC's early work (i.e. before Bon Scott's untimely demise; High Voltage is particularly awesome). But otherwise, this commercial's a cheap and deceptive stab at propping up a dying approach to technology.

Brendan I. Koerner is a contributing editor at Wired and a columnist for both The New York Times and Slate. His Hype Sheet column appears every Thursday on Gizmodo.

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Rip-Off Of Obviously, the whole point of this ad is that it's ripping off Cameron. I wonder what James thinks of his sci-fi masterpiece being modded in such a manner—and I wonder how much they had to pay Sigourney Weaver to reprise her Ripley role. I guess she needed some scratch after Happily N'Ever After flopped.

The Spin Contrary to some earlier ads in this campaign, which stressed DirecTV's picture quality and other specs, the accent here is on value. Aside from the pitch for the four-month intro offer, Weaver chats up DirecTV's vast array of channels—a menu that's only going to get bigger in the coming months, as the service adds several dozen high-def channels. In the 30-second version of the ad, Weaver also adds a gratuitous dig at cable, comparing the thrill of killing an alien to the joy of ditching Time Warner, or Comcast, or whoever has the monopoly in her neighborhood. But let's face it, the real point here is the wow factor—DirecTV still needs to break down the resistance of technophobes, who recall the mammoth satellite dishes (and shady satellite salesmen) of yore. Setting tongues wagging over the ads' cinematic wizardry makes newbies feel more confident that they're dealing with pros—as well as pros who understand the raised-in-the-'80s demographic that's now the sweet-spot for premium TV providers.

Counterpsin Big discounts are often a sign of semi-desperate circumstances, and that certainly seems to be the case here. Anyone who follows tech stocks knows that DirecTV's been having a hard time this year (down about 14 percent), largely because investors are increasingly skeptical of its ability to compete with the likes of Verizon's FiOS and other fiber services that can offer broadband-TV-phone bundles. That's forced DirecTV to focus on price in order to compete; note that there's no 1080i shout-outs in the campaign's recent entrants, unlike in the early days of Jessica Simpson's spokesmodeling.

Takeaway Trite as it might sound, DirecTV's at a crossroads. It's in the midst of being sold, from Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. to Liberty Media. That's probably good news for gearheads: News Corp. made a bollocks of its in-house DVR system, and all signs point to a reconciliation between TiVO and DirecTV under the new regime. DirecTV also has to play some tech catch-up; for example, though it'll be using MPEG-4 transmission for its new high-def channels, the older TiVO HR 10-250 DVR apparently won't be compatible. On top of that, will DirecTV keep having to slash prices in order to compete with the likes of Verizon and Comcast? Because right now, FiOS in particular seems to be eating DirecTV's lunch.

Hype-O-Meter 7.5 (out of 10). Another great ad in the Fourth Wall campaign, and all due to respect to Deutsch Inc.; a "making-of" series on YouTube would be most excellent. But you can also tell that this ad approach is getting a wee bit tired—just ask investors. DirecTV needs to give more thought to how it's gonna confront the emerging competition from fiber, or it'll fall back to niche status one of these days. Let's hope its rekindled relationship with TiVO is a step in the right direction.

Brendan I. Koerner is a contributing editor at Wired and a columnist for both The New York Times and Slate. His Hype Sheet column appears every Thursday on Gizmodo.

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Rip-Off Of Spike Jonze's early music-video work, with a liberal dose of Wes Anderson whimsy thrown in for good measure. Other than that, props for the originality.

The Spin Like HP, the star of last week's Hype Sheet, Dell is in the midst of a rebranding project. Having awoken to the fact that it can no longer compete on price alone, the company is now taking a page from the Acer playbook and focusing on laptop aesthetics. The big pitch with the Inspiron 1420s is that they come in myriad colors; it took me a few views of this ad to realize that the featured laptops invariably match their surroundings, color-wise. (I especially like the sailors and their raincoat-yellow PC.) Case color may seem like a pretty weak spec to be harping on, but think about what Dell has to overcome right now—a reputation for making drab boxes that mark their owners as computing neophytes. On top of that, the Flaming Lips song is the real star of this ad—nothing says "effortless cool" quite like the greatest band to ever come out of Oklahoma City. What Michael Dell wouldn't give for the young'uns to think the same of his eponymous PCs.

Counterspin The conventional wisdom is that price wars plus a lack of retail presence are what got Dell into its current bind. (Gartner recently estimated Dell's U.S. market share at 29.9 percent, down nearly six points over the last year.) But the rot seems deeper than that, which makes the Inspiron 1420 play seem a little insubstantial. Sure, colors are great, and it's nice to know that Dell's brain trust gets that laptop consumers are a more culturally savvy lot than they're often given credit for. But most of the complaints I've heard about Dell are about service and bait-and-switch tactics, not aesthetics and specs. How does this admirably creative campaign address those concerns? It doesn't, of course—it just hopes that you'll come back to Dell once the brand's uncool stigma has been banished.

Takeaway The big news 'round Dell these days is that its founder is back at the everyday helm, after besieged CEO Kevin Rollins got elbowed out in January. So think of this campaign as Michael Dell's personal vision of how he'll rescue his baby. Mike's obviously a much cooler cat than Rollins, who probably thought those intolerable "Dude, you're getting a Dell!" ads were pure genius. And shedding the company's utilitarian rep is certainly part of the puzzle. But you've got to wonder how the billionaire Dell is going to address the deeper problems in his once and future kingdom, starting with customer relations. Stories like this one, about aggrieved folks still waiting for their XPS M1330s, are all-too-common, and the company has done a pitiful job of maintaining its call centers' standards. (If you're a Dell customer who's having problems with a Vista upgrade, may the gods be with ye.) It seems like Dell needs to rebuild trust even more than it needs to glam up its staid image.

Hype-O-Meter 8 (out of 10). The Flaming Lips song is a masterstroke, if only because you can't get it out of your head for a good 10 to 12hours (or even longer). And how can you hate on a commercial that features an honest-to-goodness Pacer? But if case colors are all Dell has to differentiate itself in the mid-range laptops market, it'll be a while before they climb out of the hole. This is a step in the right direction, but a baby step.

Brendan I. Koerner is a contributing editor at Wired and a columnist for both The New York Times and Slate. His Hype Sheet column appears every Thursday on Gizmodo.

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Rip-Off Of Tough to slag the ingenious Gondry for lack of originality, though he obviously didn't try too hard to shift out of his The Science of Sleep aesthetic—trying to move some DVDs, perhaps? (Sidenote: That movie, though gorgeous, is also incoherent and boring. Discuss.) Also admirable is the commercial's tight structure, allowing Gondry to cycle through a lot of computing tasks in 30 seconds. Much respect to the ad agency, San Francisco's Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, which will soon be launching a campaign for Sprint Nextel, too.

The Spin Buy an HP, become the next Michel Gondry—or, at the very least, maximize your creative potential. Consumers who are receptive to this message are, of course, precisely the sorts of folks that Apple's been poaching for years, and which the Sony Vaio lineup has been geared toward keeping in the PC camp. HP, meanwhile, has more often pursued a bang-for-your-buck strategy, relying on its well-known brand name to compete in the Dell/Gateway space. Yet like its fellow rebrander Acer, HP seems to have finally decided that the future lies in the mid-to-high-end range, as PCs increasingly become work-at-home (or on-the-go) tools. Getting the likes of Jay-Z, Pharrell Williams, Shaun White and Gondry to vouch for your computer lineup goes a long way toward convincing people that the HP brand is synonymous with success.

Counterspin The question is whether HP's products can live up to the ads. The company's been doing a lot to innovate as of late, pushing forward with its ultraportable Optimator laptop and getting on the LED bandwagon. But HP computers are still afflicted with far too much bloatware, and I'm skeptical as to whether incorporating Viiv is going to improve that situation—if anything, it could make it worse. One thing HP's always been dreadful about is setting up its PCs for too much user handholding—comforting for first-time users, perhaps, but ultimately a drag on performance. And aren't these commercials pitched toward computing vets? I'd bet that anyone who's a Gondry fan is probably already an experienced user, and will be disappointed by HP's messy installs—and, for that matter, it's decidedly non-slick keyboard layouts (including some of the most dunderheaded quick-launch controls I've ever encountered).

Takeaway In recent years, few consumer tech companies have rebranded as swiftly or successfully as HP. Remember, it was only two years ago that HP's big news was how it was partnering with Wal-Mart to offer sub-$400 desktops. Now it wants the public eye on its high-end Pavilions—even if most of the public doesn't want to drop $2,000-plus on one of the best. The Gondry commercial is a step even further down that path, since he's not a mainstream celebrity like Jay-Z or Shaun White; they're not gonna be airing this ad on ESPN, but rather on channels preferred by artsy geeks (a bit like your humble narrator, I reckon). In other words, they're trying to crack a market that's pretty savvy about PCs to begin with, and will likely be familiar with HP's not-so-great rep for bloatware and other headaches. But Gondry's endorsement may at least get such consumers to try out an HP Pavilion the next time they swing by Best Buy—which is really all an ad can hope to do, right?

Hype-O-Meter 9 (out of 10). I'll confess, I'm a sucker for Gondry's visuals, and he oozes a certain kind of geeky charm. I have to wonder, though, if Gondry's ever tried using one of HP's more affordable PCs—he might not be such a fan if he was saddled with one of these.

Brendan I. Koerner is a contributing editor at Wired and a columnist for both The New York Times and Slate. His Hype Sheet column appears every Thursday on Gizmodo.

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Rip-Off Of There's an unmistakable Cirque du Soleil vibe to this ad, which makes sense given that it's meant to target a range of nations and cultures; circus performers translate well, especially in countries like China where acrobats are ostensibly revered. (More on the China connection later.) But in emphasizing color sharpness by relying on old-fashioned paint, the commercial also takes after Sony's epic Bravia ad from a while back. No real comparison in terms of the amount of effort—the Bravia paint geysers were genius—but the spirit is the same. Note, too, that the Bravia commercial features a clown—how long 'til Sharp signs up a lion tamer or tightrope walker to hawk its Aquos G Series?

The Spin Regardless of which national market it's going for, Samsung's flat-panel pitch never varies: LCD TVs are akin to works of art, to be hung in the bedrooms of aspiring sophisticates and used to watch refined fare. Contrast this approach with that of LG, which seems content to target couch potatoes who high-five over golf. The Samsung approach seems to be winning: according to the latest figures from DisplaySearch, 50.2 percent of the 40-inches-and-up LCD TVs that shipped in Q1 bore the Samsung imprint. (LG Philips came in second at 26.1 percent, followed by Sharp with 10.9 percent.) Of course, most folks splashing out for a PAVV Bordeaux will likely use it to watch low-brow fare—I'm sure Roadhouse looks awesome at a contrast ratio of 17,000:1. (Yes, we here at Gizmodo know that contrast ratio gets way too much play.)

Counterspin There's certainly something to be said for creating an air of mystery around your product, but is this body-paint ad just too inscrutable? Granted, Samsung had it's work cut out—it's always a challenge to produce an ad with cross-cultural appeal, without going the cheesy Mentos route favored by LG, and without slipping in content that our more conservative brothers and sisters will find offensive. (The T&A shots in this ad are disappointingly fleeting, and decidedly non-erotic.) But I wonder if increasingly sophisticated consumers don't expect at least some nod toward specs (namechecking 1080p, perhaps?), or a quick teaser for a Web site that explains why the newest PAVVs are worth the cake. Emotional appeals seem less likely to work when the products in question is so frackin' expensive.

Takeaway One of Samsung's top priorities for the next year is dominating the booming Chinese market—a market to which this commercial seems particularly well-suited. (The Chinese sure do love 'em some acrobats—or at least the Korean admen seem to think so.) The chaebol is reportedly betting that a lot of Chinese consumers will feel rushed to upgrade their TVs in the run-up to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Assuming that supposition is true, it's interesting to contrast the Chinese mindset with that of American consumers, who allegedly feel pressured to upgrade their TVs before every Super Bowl. But I can just imagine Joe Q. Football Fan's response upon seeing a commercial this esoteric—I imagine it would be much like Homer Simpson's reaction to seeing his Calvin Klein-inspired Mr. Plow ad. Or perhaps even angrier—red-blooded Americans aren't big fans of tasteful body-paint unitards, nor of Slavic-style electro.

Hype-O-Meter 7 (out of 10). I wavered on this, but props to Samsung for staying on-message, and for creating a viable international ad with an artistic edge. But for a product line that boasts the Advanced Common Application Platform, you'd think there'd be a multilingual Web site plugged somewhere, right? Took me way too long to Google around and figure out that PAVV stands for "Powerful Audio Vast Vision."

Brendan I. Koerner is a contributing editor at Wired and a columnist for both The New York Times and Slate. His Hype Sheet column appears every Thursday on Gizmodo.

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Rip-Off Of Those Bud Light commercials in which schlubby white guys end up dancing in hip-hop videos or hanging by an iced-out rapper's pool. T-Mobile's plotline is different, but the underlying message is the same (as well as the ultimate advertising classic): our product will make you much cooler than you are. Also worth noting that Jimmy is a spitting image of a younger Will Ferrell—say, from his A Night at the Roxbury days. Having formerly employed Catherine Zeta-Jones as a spokesmodel, perhaps T-Mobile came to the conclusion that it's far cheaper and equally effective to simply go the celeb-impersonator route.

The Spin The humor here is pitched toward the demographic that figures to adopt HotSpot @Home in the early going: post-collegiate consumers who are finally paying their own phone bills, and realize that landlines are doomed. These folks have probably already made the switch to VoIP, but even that's too expensive and redundant; they want to use a cell only, but minute caps kill them (even with those nifty Fave 5s and Alltel Circles). Expect future "Jimmy's House" ads to tout the fact that HotSpot @Home users can also hop on Starbucks' Wi-Fi network, and thus take advantage of unlimited calling while getting hopped up on overpriced caffeine.

Counterspin Really poor execution on the campaign's online component. The commercial advises interested parties to visit TheOnlyPhoneYouNeed.com, which features perhaps the most unilluminating Flash demo in recorded history. Why, for example, doesn't the demo answer the most obvious questions a halfway tech-savvy consumer will have: do I need to use T-Mobile's router, or can I keep my old one? And what's the service's deal with text messaging (i.e. are they still gonna charge you extra for texting, even when using your home Wi-Fi network)? Also, getting back to the television ad, will Jimmy start to grate after his second or third appearance? When jokey pitchmen work, they work great (see: the Geico Caveman); when they fail, nothing is more irritating.

Takeaway T-Mobile is targeting exactly the right demographic, and there's no question that wireless service providers should be making a more aggressive play to dinosaur landlines. But as our own Wilson Rothman recently noted, T-Mobile is debuting HotSpot @Home with a pretty abysmal lineup of handsets—the Nokia 6086 and the Samsung t409 aren't anything to write home about, and that's putting it mildly. Yes, switching to the HotSpot @Home service will save your average VoIP user a good $20-$30 per month. But is that enough savings to get the masses to cancel their Vonage and triple play packages? Perhaps if more phones were on offer, or T-Mobile offered one with high-speed data. For the moment, though, this makes the most sense for families that are still stuck in the copper-wire morass; they can get five lines for $19.99.

Hype-O-Meter 6 (out of 10). Okay, maybe I should grade this a bit lower, given that I didn't find Jimmy's mugging particularly amusing. But, hey, T&A—don't get nearly enough of that in American gadget ads. The rest of the world, though, is a different story—which is why you can expect Hype Sheet to be covering some foreign ads in the very, very near future.

Brendan I. Koerner is a contributing editor at Wired and a columnist for both The New York Times and Slate. His Hype Sheet column appears every Thursday on Gizmodo.

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Rip Off Of Where to begin? The whole have-Joe-Q.-Public-try-it approach is classic infomercial, though the production values here are way higher. The spirit of the commercial is actually more akin to that of the recent Chevy spots featuring John Mellencamp's "Our Country." Both are centered around slice-of-life visuals of archetypal small-town Americans—no disaffected goths or skate punks, please. Heck, they even go so far as to have one of Georgetowns ponytailed shutterbugs blurt out, "Gotta have a picture of the American flag!" Yes, we get it—true patriots use digicams, and DSLRs at that.

The Spin The obvious message is that the D40 is perfect for entry-level photographers, even those who might be frightened by the sizeable lens. Nikon realizes that everyone and his brother now has a point-and-shoot digicam; it wants to get folks comfortable with splashing out some extra scratch on DSLRs like the D40, with the upside being higher quality pictures. Not that there's much discussion of specs in this ad, aside from a brief mention of shutter delay. The spot instead harps on how easy it is to use the D40, a point that's made head-thunkingly clear when the narrator's soothing voice intones, "There's really nothing to it." He's right, of course; the 6.1-megapixel, 17-ounce D40 is a winner, and a good value to boot: Sam's Club, for example, currently has the body plus an 18-55mm lens priced at $559.95.

Counterspin Curious how the phrase "DSLR" is never mentioned in this commercial. It makes me wonder how consumers will react upon learning that the D40 is priced hundreds more than perfectly serviceable 6-megapixel point-and-shoots such as the Canon PowerShot SD700. Granted, the Nikon D40 is a superior camera, but does this commercial make that case? Not really—the aim here is to demystify DSLRs, albeit (strangely) without actually making clear what a DSLR is. Nikon seems to be hoping that the ad will direct viewers to the Picturetown website to learn about the camera's technical aspects. Might've helped, though, if they actually mentioned the site's URL in the ad.

Takeaway The digicam revolution seems to have caught Nikon somewhat unawares. The longtime choice of professionals, Nikon hasn't made the smoothest transition from analog to digital; when I was camera shopping last winter, no fewer than three pro photojournalists warned me to stay away from high-end Nikon digicams, due to durability issues. Yet Nikon hasn't found particular success with its low-end Coolpix line, either. So the D40 (and its 10.2-megapixel successor, the D40x) represents a fresh strategy for the fabled camera maker: budget DSLRs geared toward everyday shooters, rather than the camera geek crowd. But does that demographic really need DSLRs, especially as fewer and fewer photos are printed out? And will the neophytes get freaked out upon learning that DSLRs feature removable lenses? Budget DSLRs might be a good long-term play, but Nikon could also be getting a little ahead of itself.

Hype-O-Meter 4.5 (out of 10). This is very much an eye-of-the-beholder ad, and thus a tough one to judge. But I'm not prone to sentimentality, so I didn't exactly tear up upon seeing all those happy cheerleaders and barbers enjoying their D40s. If anything, the commercial struck me as sorta condescending—Nikon seems to be saying, "Hey, if these numbskulls can use D40s, then a much smarter person such as yourself surely can." But above all, I thought the Americana angle rang false, not least of all because Madison Avenue seems to have handpicked an unbelievably photogenic crew. What, no one in Georgetown has neck tattoos or wears "I'm Going Nucking Futs" T-shirts? Hard to believe.

Brendan I. Koerner is a contributing editor at Wired and a columnist for both The New York Times and Slate. His Hype Sheet column appears every Thursday on Gizmodo.

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The Pitch They still make laptop commercials? Apparently so, and stylish ones at that. "Everything you want in a notebook," the narrator intones, as a slinky, possibly Icelandic model experiences all the Acer Aspire 5920G has to offer: a "holographic 3D finish," "opalesque contours," and "Enlightener media flow." (No, I have no idea what any of that means, either.) Donning a curve-hugging, sleeveless white pantsuit, our captivating model slides around oversized laptops and enjoys some Dolby surround sound before the familiar Intel jingle caps the pitch. Is Acer's new Aspire Gemstone lineup about to supplant Sony's Vaios as the preferred notebooks of design-conscious PC users? Or is Acer getting too fancy with its aesthetics-first schtick?

Rip Off Of A jillion ads for German cars, which is no accident. The 5920G was co-designed by none other than BMW; after the success of the Acer's Ferrari laptops, you knew this was coming, didn't you? So the aesthetic here is pure automotive porn: Instead of twisting around an Alpine road at impossible speeds, the Acer model romps about a Matrix-like netherworld replete with sapphires, opals and $1,919 laptops. There's no sense of irony or humor here—it's all about wowing you with the Teutonic care that's gone into the product's creation.

The Spin The marketing approach is very non-Apple, but Acer seems to be positioning its Aspire Gemstones as the premier PC rivals to the Macbooks. That was once the Sony Vaios' gig, but those laptops seem to have lost some of their luster—the brand was diluted, perhaps, by overproduction on the low-end (such as the VGN-FE670s). This commercial tries to seize the Vaio's mantle, then, by accenting frills similar to those that won Sony so many laptop customers: eye-catching design and attention to multimedia features. As previously noted, for example, the Gemstones claim to be the first notebooks with Dolby-certified surround sound. And there's a nifty built-in webcam, as well as dedicated volume buttons—Apple-like tricks that the Vaio series adopted long ago.

Counterspin The ad briefly namechecks the Intel Centrino chipset, but no other performance specs are mentioned. In other words, Acer's betting the farm that looks, not power, are what drive laptop customers with $2,000 to spend (i.e. the mid-range folks). But is Acer covering up for some deal-killing flaws? Word is the battery life is rated a mere 130 minutes, and an early CNet Asia review dinged the 5920G for poor setup (particularly the dunderheaded arrangement of the USB ports and DVD-ROM drive). The specs are solid enough—two gigs of RAM, a Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT graphics card—but not spectacular; smart shoppers can save a few hundred bucks by going for a comparably outfitted (though far less sexy) Lenovo or HP (such as the HP Pavilion dv5375us).

Takeaway Props to Acer for picking a strategy and sticking to it. They've concluded that they can grow market share with this laptops-are-the-new-cars tactic, and they understand that aesthetics do matter. For the past two years or so, the conventional wisdom has been that price is paramount in the notebooks space; Acer senses a shift in the prevailing sentiment. The Taiwanese company has already made tremendous inroads in its native Asia; it controls 42 percent of the market in Thailand, for example. But how much of a premium are American consumers willing to pay in order to hear their friends say, "Wow, cool-looking laptop"? And will the automotive gimmick wear thin?

Hype-O-Meter 8 (out of 10). I usually like my commercials with at least some hint of humor, an attribute that's entirely lacking here. But the 5920G pitch accomplishes exactly what it sets out to do, and with a with an alluring lady to boot; if nothing else, it's tough to hate on a commercial starring a circa-1997 Milla Jovovich clone. If a few geek luminaries start showing up in Fast Company with Gemstones, the masses could soon follow—at least the masses for whom $400-$500 is no great amount to sacrifice in the name of sharp design.

Brendan I. Koerner is a contributing editor at Wired and a columnist for both The New York Times and Slate. His Hype Sheet column appears every Thursday on Gizmodo.

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The Pitch A generic golfer tees off—so far, so boring. But who's that by the tee box? Why, a trio of overaged escapees from an Urban Outfitters catalog, perched on a boxy red sofa. No one seems to mind the interlopers, who somehow teleport wherever the golfer goes—a sand trap, a green. After a particularly well-played shot, the three men exchange awkwardly animated high-fives. The golfer finally snaps to reality and appears to ask his caddy, "Who dey?" The caddy scrawls the letters "LG" on a sheet of paper. "Don't just watch it, live it," the sweet-voiced narrator intones, as if any viewer could've failed to grasp such an obvious pro-FullHD allegory.

Rip-Off Of Though the action here is much slower—it's golf, after all—the ad is clearly a descendant of those classic Mentos spots of yore. The actors have no lines, but rather emote everything in the most exaggerated way possible. And the choice of golf as the commercial's centerpiece is telling—it's a sport that translates well among globe-trotting business types, who will doubtless catch this spot on CNN International or BBC World. In other words, like the Mentos ads, the intention here seems to be cross-cultural appeal—not to mention the convenience of being able to dub the ad for myriad markets.

The Spin This is a natural extension of LG's successful "Life's Good" campaign, which aims to lessen consumer anxieties about high-end electronics. The message here is thus similar to the message in, say, LG's print ads touting its sleek washing machines: "Our products are for enhancing life, not impressing your friends." Granted, the spot briefly flashes 1080p at its conclusion, but that's one of the safer geek terms—remember when Jessica Simpson mentioned 1080i in that great DirecTV ad? ("I totally don't know what that means, but I want it.") Yes, this LG FullHD ad is vanilla, but that's the point—if three of the whitest, dopiest guys in history are lovin' it, then a relative sophisticate such as yourself will be even more enthralled.

Counterspin LG is definitely taking the road less traveled here. Its Korean rival Samsung is going in the opposite direction with its latest HDTVs (the one with those "super clear panels" for "blacker blacks"); it's advertising them as veritable works of art, fit for the walls of tycoons and other high rollers. Samsung's approach is definitely the more conventional one, trying to make potential customers feel as if they're buying their way into an elite club. Is LG underestimating the ego-driven aspects of the current HDTV market? Let's face it, people like to brag about their snazzy new $8,000 sets, and they're willing to learn the technical jargon in order to up their impressiveness. And they probably don't want to think of themselves as dorky, aging preppies whose idea of a fun Saturday afternoon is soberly enjoying a televised golf tournament. Perhaps a spy movie or, better yet, a Hype Williams video would've been more appealing you-are-there fare?

Takeaway I was all set to slam this ad, given my general antagonism toward golf. But I have to admit, the jarring Mentos style grew on me after repeated viewings. I can see the wisdom in creating a cross-cultural ad, especially in this day and age of the weak dollar—a lot of those LG FullHD sets are going to be sold in Europe and South Asia. But you've also got to hand it to LG for sticking to their core message, which has brought them so far in such a short period of time—am I the only one who remembers when LG was considered a decidedly low-end brand? But the chaebol has reinvented itself, in no small part because of its partnership with Philips, whose expertise in marketing appliances seems to have rubbed off on LG.

Hype-O-Meter 7 (out of 10). Yes, it's laughably bland. But LG has reinvented its brand by demystifying technology, and this commercial totally jibes with that theme. Granted, however, it's likelier to appeal to technophobes than Gizmodo readers; rarely has an HDTV ad so underplayed the innovation angle. And unlike the Mentos spots, there's a noticeable lack of zaniness—tough to imagine the Foo Fighters parodying this one.

Brendan I. Koerner is a contributing editor at Wired and a columnist for both The New York Times and Slate. His Hype Sheet column appears every Thursday on Gizmodo.

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The Pitch What first seems to be a field of rectangular tombstones turns out to be a field of Zunes, tiered upwards like stadium seats. One of the players flickers to life, apparently transmitting MIMS' "This Is Why I'm Hot (Rock Mix") to a neighbor. As the headbanging tune kicks in, the Zunes all flare to life, MIMS' mug splashed across their gorgeous screens. The Zunes then show off their FM tuning capability, followed by a couple of cartoon characters gently bumping heads—a take on the Dragonball Z Fusion Dance. The camera pulls back to reveal a couple of teenage girls on a Zune screen—a demo of its digicam capabilities. And, hey, is that the cover art for the new Queens of the Stone Age album I glimpse in the corner? Too late—the frenetic ad's over, and you've got an inane chorus ("This is why I ROCK!") stuck in your brain—potentially forever, I'm afraid.

Rip-Off Of The structural resemblance to the classic iPod spots is surely no accident: the lack of narration, the thumping soundtrack, the accent on arresting colors. The major difference, of course, is that the Apple ads center on those dancing silhouettes; the iPod itself is almost a footnote. The strategy's pretty different in Zuneworld: as the laggard in the portable media space, Microsoft is desperate to prove its player's technological superiority. So this commercial is basically a checklist of why the Zune might be better than its iconic rival—wireless sharing, radio, and digicam functionality.

The Spin Think Pepsi's marketing message, circa 1989: yes, we're number two, but if you judged products completely on their merits, we definitely deserve the top slot. Given that sharing was initially seen as the Zune's big advantage over the iPod, it's curious to see how much of this ad focuses on the player's screen quality; Microsoft knows that you'll be watching the hit shows of, say, 2014 on portable devices, so wants to establish its LCD bona fides sooner rather than later. The money shot in the ad is the cartoon head bump, which lets the Zune show off its video prowess.

Counter-Spin Thirty seconds is a pretty brief time in which to cram so many ideas, isn't it? The opening section, touting the Zune's sharing, rushes by so swiftly that a neophyte will be hard-pressed to understand what's up. And that shot of the teen BFFs? Didn't even notice it until my fifth or sixth viewing—although, given the ad's heavy rotation during the NBA playoffs, that only took about two days. And I've got to question the music choice. The beauty of the iPod ads has been their ability to dredge up off-the-chart gems—the one with the Les Rythmes Digitales cut is a personal favorite. Featuring a rock mix of a chart-topping hip-hop confection? Too eager to please, and thus too vanilla.

Takeaway Okay, so the Zune's sales figures may have been slightly exaggerated. But you can't deny that, after some initial missteps, the player is hanging in there against the iPod; it's not every gadget that inspires a gelatinous nerd to get a tattoo, after all. And griping about the iPod's lackluster battery life and random disk failures continues apace. So now's definitely the time for Microsoft to press forward. But will the company regret downplaying the Zune's sharing feature? That seems to be what makes the device unique, and it was the centerpiece of the original marketing campaign—the one built around the head-scratching slogan "Welcome to the Social". Judging by this latest ad, the emphasis now seems to be more on the LCD quality than anything else; the word "sharing" is never mentioned, not even in the quick text summary towards the end. Perhaps those pesky three-play sharing limits have rubbed consumers the wrong way?

Hype-O-Meter 6.5 (out of 10). It'll drive some newbies to Zune.net, where they can learn about sharing on their own. But something sharper is needed if Microsoft really hopes to make progress against the Empire That Jobs Built. And a sense of humor wouldn't hurt, either—though I guess that's never been Microsoft's forte.

Brendan I. Koerner is a contributing editor at Wired and a columnist for both The New York Times and Slate. His Hype Sheet column appears every Thursday on Gizmodo.

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Terrell Owens for Boost Mobile

The Pitch Ad-libbing in an empty gym, eternally controversial Philadelphia Eagles wideout Terrell Owens waxes poetic on his dedication to the game of (American) football. "I'm running routes in my head right now, catching a pass right now," he informs us, while stealthily flexing his impressive guns. Owens also refers to the fact it's been "three long months" since he's been on a field, without explaining that the absence is due to a suspension for being a me-first tool. Towards the end, as Owens encourages fans to "get your popcorn ready" for next season's heroics, he briefly plays toss-and-catch with a Boost Mobile handset. The Berlin Cameron United-produced spot, which will doubtless be shown 3 million times during the Super Bowl, ends with the youth-oriented carrier's tagline: "Where you at?"

Rip-Off Of A mish-mash of 1990s sneaker commercials and fawning ESPN SportsCenter profiles. I'm reminded, in particular, of the Nike ad featuring Lance Armstrong, which came out in response to allegations that the future Mr. Sheryl Crow was winning all those Tour de Frances with the aid of illegal fish tranquilizers or somesuch. Both spots have a certain damage-control flavor, though Armstrong's connection to Nike is a lot more obvious than Owens' tie-in with Boost Mobile. Given the fact that he probably can't go out in public without inviting a mob of autograph seekers, something tells me that Owens isn't really a push-to-talk kinda guy.

The Spin Boost Mobile's entire marketing strategy is predicated on youth appeal, and that means cultivating a quasi-rebellious image in lieu of talking up its payment plans or handset features. Case in point: the excellent ad featuring Kanye West and Ludacris from a few months back, which featured perhaps the catchiest adverrap ever. (Sample lyric: "My beats was so sick, I shoulda got a medic/But my credit was so pathetic I couldn't afford a debit.") The Owens spot is certainly just as eye-catching, if only because the wide receiver's become so well-known as the paragon of spoiled jocks. It's easy enough to dismiss his appearance as a calculating bit of image reclamation, but give Boost Mobile props for knowing how to create a stir.

Counterspin I know there's an old chestnut to this effect, but is any publicity really good publicity? Casting its lot with the infamous T.O. will certainly garner lots of attention, but Boost Mobile doesn't want to back itself into a branding corner, either. That's especially true now that a rival may be emerging in Amp'd Mobile, another wireless provider that's targeting the 18-to-25 demographic. Unlike Boost, Amp'd is emphasizing unique content and more technologically-advanced headsets, rather than dropping all of its ad money into hiring celebrity spokesmen. At some point, Boost may have to take into account that even young wireless users are super-sophisticated nowadays, and that the bells and whistles of image building can only take their brand so far.

Takeaway Your mileage may vary on this commercial, depending on a) your level of football fandom, and b) your age. If you're above 25, Boost Mobile couldn't care less if you scoff at their blatant attention grab, or the cravenness of Owens' motives; you're old enough to leave prepaid calling behind, after all, and you're probably not enamored of buying a limited-edition phone designed by members of the Retail Mafia. And therein lies, I humbly submit, the genius of this ad. Boost Mobile, a subsidiary of Sprint Nextel, is avoiding the trap of trying to be all things to all people. It understands that its consumer base makes purchases based on style rather than specs, and that individuality is a valued attribute among these folks. And, for better or for worse, who's more about the individual than Owens? There's no "i" in his name, but there damn well should be.

Hype-O-Meter 8.5; grade it a little less if you're an Eagles fan, or just a T.O. hater, but Boost Mobile deserves credit for its advertising cojones.

Brendan I. Koerner is a contributing editor at Wired and a columnist for both The New York Times and Slate. His Hype Sheet column appears every other Wednesday on Gizmodo.

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The Bose SoundDock

The Pitch A glossy magazine insert (spied in The New Yorker) asks readers to "Insert iPod "—not literally, mind you, but rather by pulling on a small tab marked "open." Doing so reveals (rather unsurprisingly) a splashy picture of the company's iPod dock, annotated with praise from Wall Street Journal gadget kingmaker Walter Mossberg. On the flip, there are more shout-outs from the likes of Forbes.com and USA Today, along with some dry copy on the SoundDock's ease-of-use and aural virtues. (Example: "Hear what happens when your iPod meets the most respected name in sound.") Per the usual for Bose ads, the wrap-up includes the company's registered (and somewhat controversial) slogan: "Better Sound Through Research."

Rip-Off Of An untold number of luxury-car ads, in which readers are invited to experience the joys of V8 power paired with seats crafted from the hides of virginal, caviar-fed calves. Those same automotive come-ons also make extensive use of journalistic quotes, albeit from the likes of Motor Trend rather than USA Today. There are hints of Big Pharma here, too, as readers are encouraged to visit a Bose store or dial a toll-free number ("ask for ext. 6102 ") in order to learn more. In other words, Yes, this product will improve your life immeasurably, but if you want the nitty-gritty, well, we don't want to (or can't) reveal too much.

The Spin The handwriting's on the wall for mini-stereos, given that the first thing most folks do nowadays with their new CDs (if they still buy such baubles) is rip 'em. Bose is hip to the fact that people don't want to plug their iPods into stereos via Radio Shack Y-cables, and so the trend is toward dedicated systems like the SoundDock. That said, everyone still likes chest-thumping sound; and what better way to offer such sound than through, um, "research." Yes, Bose knows that its ad is pretty bland and lacking in sex appeal. But it wants the reader to come away thinking, "Hey, if it's good enough for Walter Mossberg, who cares if there's no jiggle factor?" In fact, the lack of humor or eye candy supports the classic Bose message: We're scientists, dangnabit, not greaseball stereo salesmen.

Counter-Spin The fine print is a beast on this one. Turns out that the Mossberg quote is the most recent, and it dates back to last April; several of the others are vintage '04 paeans. What Bose doesn't want you to know, of course, is that the SoundDock's sound has since been equaled or surpassed by numerous competitors, such as Altec Lansing's iM7 or Klipsch's iFi. Bose may just be now breaking wide with its ad campaign, but the SoundDock is antiquated by industry standards—the company may be busy doing research, but it sure ain't busy manufacturing the SoundDock 2.0.

Takeaway The relative merits of Bose products are a subject of constant debate in geek circles. Some folks swear be 'em, but the majority of self-styled audiophiles thumb their noses at Bose's scientific claims. For the record, I'll drink some Haterade with the nerdly masses on this one—Bose products generally aren't total rubbish, but they're nowhere near worth those ungodly prices. But I'll give Bose grudging props for taking the right tact in advertising the SoundDock toward a high-end magazine audience. The company—or, rather, its marketing department—realizes that potential customers love visualizing lab-coated engineers with tuning forks, trying to tweak every last decibel out of some solid-platinum tweeters. Y'know, doing "research" in the name of better sound. Among the duly impressed: my dad, who told me over Christmas-morning pancakes that he looks forward to equipping his brand-new HDTV with "genuine Bose speakers."

Hype-O-Meter 6.5 (out of 10); the cynic in me hates the sleight-of-hand with the crusty quotes, but you can't knock the effectiveness of Bose's tried-and-true promotional strategy.

Brendan I. Koerner is a contributing editor at Wired and a columnist for both The New York Times and Slate. His Hype Sheet column appears every other Wednesday on Gizmodo.

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Nokia's "It's Your Life in There" Campaign: Jill

The Pitch A blond with an upturned nose and childbearing hips sits atop her bed, discussing her cellphone-centric breakup ritual. Upon ending it with some fellow, she exorcises the relationship demons by deleting the man's information from her handset—his photos, his e-mails, and, finally, the dude's math. "David who?" she laughs at the camera, though you get the impression that she's less than delighted about the romance's end—perhaps David was stepping out with one of his round-the-way girls? Or perhaps he merely tired of that whiny voice and pre-momsy fashion sense? Judge for yourself by checking out the Jill ad on Nokia's "It's Your Life in There" site, much-advertised in Blogland in recent weeks.

Rip-Off Of There's a zillion-and-one "Average Jane Speaks the Truth" candidates to choose from here. I instantly thought of those recent British Petroleum commercials in which folks talk about their concerns that the Earth will turn into a gigantic fireball, thanks to our pals in the energy industry—the Nokia ads, including the Jill spot, have that same feel, except they tilt toward humor instead of horror. As for Jill herself, she totally reminds me of this one girl from high school whose high-pitched giggle could peel paint—and who also put a mean shot, thanks to her gargantuan stature.

The Spin Nokia wants folks to get comfortable with using their phones for more than just calling and texting. The company has been pretty vocal about envisioning handsets as replacements not just for PCs, but for PDAs—"What we are targeting is making the Nokia device the user interface of your life," Nokia research bigwig Jyri Huopaniemi said at the company's annual press briefing in June. The first step is getting users accustomed to managing data on their phones; once we've all got that part down pat, then we'll feel okay about paying for groceries and subway rides with 'em (as is already happening with NFC-enabled phones in some Japanese cities).

Counterspin No one can accuse the spot's creator, ad agency darkGrey, of going the obvious route by, y'know, making the product look cool. Jill grates on the nerves, primarily because she's an obvious nutcase. So, was the intention to make us laugh? Perhaps, and the commercial succeeds in that regard. But to what end? No one walks away from their Jill encounter knowing anything more about Nokia's handsets, and how they might be superior to those offered by the competition. Nor does Jill convince me that I should become ever more reliant on my cellphone—if doing so leads me to a life of thinly veiled self-hatred and overly pronounced self-tanning, then I'll pass, thank you very much.

Takeaway Nokia has obviously given careful thought to the next step in the cellphone's evolution. But can they really drive consumers to change their behavior by assaulting them with the sniveling of a Sex in the City wannabe? They get points for creativity, but for actually pushing the ball forward on handset pervasiveness? Not so much. Never thought I'd say this, but I'd have much preferred a stock glamfest. You want me to integrate my Nokia more deeply into my life? Show me pretty girls in hoodies, and throw some Ludacris on the soundtrack. Yes, I'm shallow, but I'll bet I'm part of the not-so-silent majority in this case.

Hype-O-Meter 3 (out of 10); Nokia's overall strategy seems correct, but ixnay on the emotional cripple with the bejunked trunk.

Brendan I. Koerner is a contributing editor at Wired and a columnist for both the New York Times and Slate. His Hype Sheet column appears every other Wednesday on Gizmodo.

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The Moto PEBL

The Pitch A serene-yet-serious man bearing a vague resemblance to a Siamese Dream-era James Iha holds a black PEBL in his outstretched hand. How he manages to look so calm is beyond me; if I were standing on a glacier clad in nothing but a fringed blanket, I'd be freezing my babymakers off. The copy in the upper left-hand corner, meanwhile, compares the PEBL to a "natural clam."

Rip-Off Of Many a high-end vodka ad extolling the virtues of pure Scandinavian (or Polish, or Russian) water. I'm also reminded of the Sandman graphic novel Season of Mists, in which several ancient gods gather to quibble over the key to Hell. Our PEBL loving friend here totally looks like he belongs in that plotline, perhaps as Loki's Gal Friday.

The Spin Motorola's trying to parlay the Razr's success into an unassailable brand image. Like Apple in the realm of MP3s, the company wants to be known as the go-to vendor for well-designed handsets—not in terms of features, but rather looks and usability. And a big part of that branding strategy is to take the Absolut approach to advertising: create images that wouldn't look out of place in a museum, rather than spec-ed out product shots that only geeks could love. The goal with the PEBL is to capture those same consumers who purchased the iPod Nano because, darnit, it just looks so friggin' amazing—never mind that you've already got a 40-gig iPod and a Mini on the desk already.

Counterspin Geeks like us know that the PEBL was delayed a full quarter due to problems with the hinges—prototypes were popping open unexpectedly, and often crashing to the floor as a result. Not that the ad doesn't illustrate how the handset's opening mechanism operates—for that, you have to visit hellomoto.com and check out the 360-degree tour. To be honest, I'm still not 100 percent sure how the PEBL's able to respond to slight hand twitches. But, hey, look! A quasi-androgynous model in a fringed blanket! And he's in, um Greenland? I'm sold.

Takeaway You have to give Motorola credit for reinventing its brand over the past few years; tough to believe that the same company that used to specialize in clunky radios has now surpassed Nokia et. al. as the king of cool handsets. Granted, there's not a lot of info in the ad, and your mileage may vary if you don't click with the strange dude palming the PEBL. But the ad sticks in the mind just enough that you want to learn more, and it deserves props for the fashion-mag photography.

Hype-O-Meter 8.5 (out of 10); if you vibed to the whole, Euro-style "Hello, Moto!" campaign, this is right up your alley. Also if you're an over-26 Smashing Pumpkins fan.

Brendan I. Koerner is a contributing editor at Wired and a columnist for both The New York Times and Slate. His Hype Sheet column appears every other Wednesday on Gizmodo.

Read more Hype Sheet