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 w