Not so fast!! A different take on Palm’s new ad campaign
“Life Moves Fast” is what Palm claims in their new advertisement that hit the internet today. The ad was well received by many webOS enthusiasts. However, in the opinion of this humble author, there is something that moves even faster that Palm seems to not have taken into account; the very commercial itself that they’ve created to demonstrate their product.
First, I will state that I disagree with many twitterers and blog commenters out there (including some from this site) saying this is Palm’s best commercial yet and the one we’ve all been waiting for. I will admit that the ad does have a nice feel to it. There’s cool, hip music (even if not something I’d ever personally listen to) and a sassy, confident looking young lady walking down the street who looks like she might be making the most of whatever it is she’s actually using. But therein lies the problem: What the heck is she using?
Not only does the commercial refuse to give a good look at any actual device whatsoever, something that can be argued is a “safe move” for also being able to promote yet to be released devices, but it also shows you the simulated screen images so quickly that you don’t ever really get a good look at those either. These are two rather large problems. The consumer doesn’t know what the phone looks like, nor did they really get a good look at what it could even do. This leaves too much responsibility on the would-be consumer to find more information by themselves. Either they go to Palm’s website, which would be a step in the right direction, but still maybe not enough; or they do nothing at all because they don’t really even know what they were just exposed to.
Big problem.
I happen to believe that those among us who are already Palm enthusiasts consider this commercial the second coming only because it gives that userbase something to look at that they are already familiar with: notifications and multiple apps. People with webOS phones recognize what’s going on in the ad because they already know about it. Show this same ad to someone who doesn’t know anything about webOS and ask them if they have a single clue as to what is going on and I bet they’d have a hard time figuring it out.
iPhone and Droid commercials may lack overall excitement, but what they do have is a very clearly executed way to show you what their product actually looks like, both in terms of hardware and software. While I don’t think Palm needs to play copycat with their commercials, they do need to take a hint from the competition.
The new Palm ad is, in one aspect, fun and new feeling, which is an improvement over previous ads. On the other, more important side of the coin, it still is lacking what was always lacking from webOS advertisements: a straightforward and simple way of showing the average consumer how this platform stacks up against the competition. Show people flipping between apps in a way that makes them understand what’s actually happening on the screen and then you’ll have your first truly successful webOS advertisement. Until then, hey, at least this commercial has a normal looking person in it, right?
