Gizmodo: adwatch

Samsung's Viral Grand Prix Ad Says Their Cameras Have Lousy Battery Life

Jason Chen — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 15:40:00 EDT

This Samsung camera viral ad is cool in that it's 2 minutes of stop motion photography featuring gadgets going around a makeshift track, but it's sending the opposite message that Samsung wants.

We don't want to spoil it for you—what little there is to spoil—but the message we get from this is that Samsung cameras have lousy battery life. [Bits and Pieces via Neatorama]

Elvis Spotted In Bose Ad, Probably Just An Impostor

Mark Wilson — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 13:20:00 EDT

A new Bose ad campaign features famous musicians in speaker-drawn portraiture by Nirmalya Chakraborty. Without the Bose logo, they'd make for some great t-shirts. [Ads of the World via Neatorama]

Microsoft Plays MONSTER BALL!!!

Mark Wilson — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 11:10:00 EDT

Fine Microsoft, you've got us. If you stop these crazy ads featuring mutants and basketball, we'll take Lauren back. We just hate that it came to this, pain and damage that cannot be undone. [copyranter]

What Gadget Is Powerful Enough to Resurrect Japanese Models?

Mark Wilson — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 08:36:49 EDT

According to this Japanese advertisement, a woman died in an asthma attack. But one force in the electronic world was strong enough to pull her back from the other side. (Any guesses?) Spoiler:

The PS3? The iPhone? An antique Godzilla beer device bought from a magic shop in Akihabara? Nope. It was the Xbox 360.

Nice try, Microsoft, but you've got a long way to go before you're as crazy as Sony. [Kotaku]

The Unforeseen Downside of Using Your Head for Your Password

Mark Wilson — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 13:00:00 EDT

Lenovo's IdeaPad face recognition sounds like a good idea, that is, until someone abruptly minimizes the password field. [Ads of the World via walyou]

According to Samsung, Animals Use Smartphones in Strange Ways

Mark Wilson — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 17:40:00 EST

Microsoft pulled at our heartstrings with adorable little girls, so Samsung went full-bore into the double dog dare of the advertising world. They released a commercial full of cute animals.

The only thing Samsung got wrong with this advertisement for the S8300 Ultra Touch was that they went for humorous instead of cute. Cute always trumps funny in the ad world. Just examine this little chart I assembled that explores the relationship of funny pets and kids to cute pets and kids.
I don't mean to be a dick about it, but someone from Samsung's ad firm should really get fired for missing a golden opportunity here. [Thanks Jamie!]

Microsoft Uses Another Cute Little Girl in 'I'm a PC' Ad

Jason Chen — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 18:00:00 EST

Microsoft's once again going for the cute-little-girl route for their "I'm a PC" ads. And while this girl is cute, she's not quite as cute as the first.

These ads work.

After seeing the first one, Mark's wife said she wanted an Asian baby and a PC. This, after she JUST got a new MacBook. Wow, Microsoft. Nice job.

As for me, I'm convinced that that 4.5-year-old is what my kid will look like when she grows up. When I have a kid. Whenever that is.

Best Buy Has Your Last Minute Gift Ideas Squared Away

Mark Wilson — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 11:45:00 EST

We know it can be difficult to differentiate between endless mounds of faceless electronics to pick the perfect gift. Luckily, a recent Best Buy podcast was quite specific as to exactly which products are best.

Dated Computer Ads For Your Perusal and Mockery

Mark Wilson — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 12:00:00 EST

There's nothing quite like the ego boost of looking at an old computer ad. Without doing absolutely anything remarkable, you get to laugh at the accomplishments of yesteryear that got us where we are today.

Luckily, Old Computer Ads has pages of...old computer ads...for your casual browsing and snickering. But occasionally you can find a real technological gem in the rough, like this APF Imagination Machine. I mean, I know it's old and everything, but my life will never be the same if I buy it.

Truly though, the next Dell marketed in sparkling rainbow font is the next Dell that I momentarily consider purchasing before posting about it here in faux macho disdain. [Old Computer Ads via bbGadgets]

Your Citroen C4 is Not Optimus Prime

Mark Wilson — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 20:40:00 EDT

You can watch this commercial all day long. You can load up YouTube and play it for your coworkers. You can even rip the video and convert it to play on your PMP of choice. But it won't make your shitty hatchback into an epic 80s superhero. Sorry. Not gonna happen. And this isn't even the first time we've seen Citreon fabricate such lies. They ran a similar spot back in 2006.

But last time, they weren't cruel enough to bring disco into the mix. Citroen, take it back.

Don't say you're sorry to us; say it to the Autobots. [autoblog]

Armpit Televisions Promote Stinky Ads

Mark Wilson — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 12:40:00 EDT

As part of a unique promotional campaign, Right Guard has deployed "Pitvertisers"—a crew of people on the street armed with LCD televisions sewn into the deepest pits of their shirts. So the next you're on the train and wonder who is emanating that awful advertisement, you'll see that, oh, it's that douchebag playing commercials with his armpits. This is the world we live in. I'm sorry if it's a disappointment. [Ananova via Ubergizmo]

Bad Tech Ads: Cisco

Jason Chen — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 16:00:00 EDT

Wherever this place is, Cisco, we never want to live here. Or visit. Or accidentally drive through on the way to work. [As seen on Crunch]

Leica Ad Pixelates Man's Best Friend

Mark Wilson — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 11:40:00 EDT

In one of the cleverer advertisements we've seen of late, Leica is proposing that you "see it in more detail" with their D-Lux 3 by placing a pixelated dog in various real world scenes. It's a strangely effective technique, but we can't believe that someone would be so cruel to do that to a dog. Shame on you, Leica. Bad! Bad!

Seriously though, from what other shots reveal, the assembly process took hours of precise supergluing:

By the ad firm Philipp und Keuntje. [cominucadores via Core77]

Samsung Entertained Us Enough to Post Their Commercial

Mark Wilson — Sat, 17 May 2008 14:30:00 EDT

You got us, Samsung. We're suckers for optical illusions, and your "10 Optical Illusions in 2 Minutes" is—even with the Soul advertisement—extremely entertaining. So we're not going to feel used as we post a commercial without any clever commentary picking it apart. Though, to be honest, our brains are still hurting too much from the faces trick to write much of anything. It's just too bad that you clearly hate homosexuals. [via engadget]

HTC's First Big Ad Push Focuses on Fingering

Jason Chen — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 20:30:00 EDT

This is HTC's first big TV ad in the US. Rather than focus on their devices individually, HTC's going for a general "brand" awareness. Seeing as how they've previously marketed their phones under the four big providers' own names (AT&T TilT, T-Mobile MDA, Verizon 6700), it's a smart step in breaking away from their control. This particular ad, one of a few that will hit print and online outlets, is underwhelming. It wants compare the HTC Touch with the iPhone (implicitly), but if you've read any of the many reviews of the device, you'll see that it's nowhere near as usable. If we were HTC, we'd focus more on their slide-out QWERTY devices that are like Sidekicks, but for businessmen.

ThunderCats Were Loose On Palace of Westminster

Mark Wilson — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 09:32:00 EDT

When most DVDs are released, production studios put up some posters and run a few television spots. However, when ThunderCats Season 2 hits store shelves...lets just say Lion-O isn't settling for an afternoon at Kinko's. Instead, he boldly emblazons the ThunderCats signal onto London's Houses of Parliament. While some surely see the stunt as a subversion to a great tradition of government, others will realize that during the global fight against terror, nothing instills fear into our enemies like occasional real world manifestations of 1980s cartoon superheroes. [shinyshiny]

Bad Vista "Reviews" from Apple's Latest Vista Sucks Ad Not Actually Reviews

matt buchanan — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 14:30:22 EDT

You'll probably be seeing Apple's newest "Vista Sucks, OS X Rules Your Face" ad, starring hilarious John Hodgman and perpetually besmirked Justin Long all over the web soon. Basically, the banner keeps pulling up bad Vista quotes as Hodgman hammers the emergency banner refresh, but neither of them are from actual reviews of Vista—even though that's what Hodgman calls them.

CNET's blurb about Vista being one of tech's "biggest blunders" is actually from an op-ed that Microsoft should dump the OS entirely, while the PC Mag snippet is the title of a column from January that proffers ways for Microsoft to start-over.

It's not a mind-blowing factual error to say the quotes are from reviews, or even that disingenuous—attack ads usually involve a roll in the mud—but it's worth pointing out there's a difference between a position and an actual review. Not to say that the spots aren't amusing—John Hodgman is a riot. Oh, and we're certain its debut the same week as Vista SP1's is a total coinky-dink. [TechEBlog]

Michael Bay, Transformers and Giant Explosions Shill for Verizon FiOS

matt buchanan — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 20:00:17 EST

Verizon's new FiOS ad is a splashy, big-budget popcorn flick compared to Time Warner's cheaper, low-fi satire spot. It even stars the king of big boom summer movies, Michael Bay, blowing a bunch of shit up and hanging out with Transformers, saying the word "awesome" a whole lot. Come to think of it, it's pretty much exactly like his movies, which you can pirate even faster with FiOS. Awesome! [Verizon]

European PlayStation 3 Ad Actually Makes Sense

Jason Chen — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 12:44:37 EST

Ditching the whole crazy people in a motel motif that dominated Sony Europe's first year of PS3 marketing, SCEE's gone and made a commercial that shows off what the PS3 can do and entertains at the same time. It wasn't easy, but we think firing off the employees that were shooting up during work hours was a good start. Save that crap for your own time. [Crunchgear]

Mr. T and William Shatner World of Warcraft Ads Make Us Want to Be Level 70 Mohawks

Matt Buchanan — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 20:00:00 EST

Most of my friends play World of Warcraft. I don't. I suspect that these hilarious new spots featuring cult icons Mr. T and William Shatner are aimed at me—if you're not a geek or know nothing about the game, they have little appeal, like an earlier spot. But they're going to be national TV ads, leading me to two conclusions: WoW's popularity is peaking/has peaked. So they're wrangling the offbeat pop cultural status its South Park episode cemented to try to lure in people of my ilk. Or maybe I'm just reading it wrong. Either way, catch at least the Mr. T ad after the jump. It rules.

[Kotaku]