LG Secret viral ad aims for sexy, ends up squarely at creepy
By Nilay Patel 
posted Jun 18th 2008 3:28AM
posted Jun 18th 2008 3:28AM
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thats crazy... i like it
Viral marketing is dead. I wish advertisers would stop milking it like it's the "next best thing." It has already come and gone! These guys are trying too hard.
so lg is for stalkers?
Now that is just a bit weird.
Nah, that was a lot weird.
That was a REALLY lot weird.
Weird.
Wow.
Wow.
[Does anyone know what the ad was FOR? I don't. Seems to violate a prime rule of advertising that an ad should leave a smidgen of memory in the viewer's mind about what the ad was trying to sell...lol!]
The ad was for the LG Secret. You know...the one mentioned in the title of the post and shown in the commercial. I agree that this ad does little to actually show you what the phone does, but to it's kind of stupid to say you don't know what the ad is for when they say it in the post.
Sorry, not to be overly critical.
Holy shit that was terrible.
Wow, that was a crap ad. Wow. Whoever made that should be fired.
I mean, not to say that I'm not nursing a semi, the chick was hot, but wow that ad was bad.
I don't think your manhood was in dispute. Next time, spare us the details and "nurse that semi" in private.
...your comment was even weirder than the ad itself...
semi: second.
third semi
wow..
Target market iPhone loving peeping toms, gunna sell millions!!!!
maybe, stalkers/control freaks/perverts would be more accurate.
Sex sells. I think this one's very creative :)
Awful... Just awful...
Is there a combination of wtf and lol? Cause if there is, thats what I'd use to describe this.
I believe the term you are looking for is "lolwtf?"
i think its just wtf.
the ad wasnt even funny.
um... i feel like buying something, but i'm not sure what. i think health food and a gym membership so i can mack on girls like that.
but what's with the perv on the window? get him outta my fantasy!
The thing a girl most wants to hear:
"I watched you sleeping" from someone she loves
The thing a girl least wants to hear:
"I watched you sleeping" from anyone else, seem more like the begining to a slasher flick
The sequel is going to be him taking pictures up girls skirts.
And the secret is that she wears panties and a bra under the nightie.
I think the secret should have been him 'lifting' up her nightie to reveal that she has a dick.
:D
FAIL.
Seconded.
Thrice voted !
wow, XLIV... you're first and only post ever was to "second" a low-ranked lame-ass meme-based comment?
it's almost as if you were CREATED just for that reason! crazy.
Ah. I see some have taken exception to my very succinct comment here, so allow me to expand on it:
This ad is fucking stupid and FAILS in its attempt to build any interest in the product it shills.
Also @ Jeff: eat a dick.
I wonder who at LG thought "hey, I think it'd be a great idea to make an ad for our new phone showing a stalker using it, that ought sell plenty of phones"
You bunch of idiots! This column on Engadget now proves that this site is edited in the US where irony and wit are sadly missing. a) I guess you don't get the shear brilliance and humor of the advertisement and then b) you have to actually GIVE AWAY the funny, original and surprise ending - just like those movie trailers that give away the whole plot by showing key scenes in advance. There was nothing creepy at all - he was most likely having a fantasy - and why not? Let's hope they show a shortened version on TV over here in the UK where (I think) we still appreciate such brilliance.
um. you need to get out more.
and the same comment from Australia... :o)
wonderkid... dont be a twat, its great fun to point out those faults with americans, but there are some corners where that is not a valid arguement, engadget is one of them.
i've a pretty sharpened sense of irony and wit, and i thought the advert was dubious to say the least.
the fact that you thought it was "genius" makes you look like a man who spends a lot of time making love to himself.
you act like no-one actually understood the advert.
man takes photo of a neighbour sleeping,
"studies" the photo quite intensely, for a good few minutes... in private...
gets right into "studying" it.
his mum interupts at the vinigar strokes, just as the model is starting to do really weird sh*t with her pout in that way that if a girl continued to do in real life you'd swear she was having a stroke.
its no funny or surprise ending you total arse! what way was it taking you? did you think he was about to cream all over his handset at the end... and were all like "oh genius" when his mum interupts...
dear oh dear... hollywood loves people like you
dont take cheapshots claiming some above average tuning for yourself, you look an arse.
alexp, i totally agree about upskirts!
weirdly... i think if lg did do that, i would respect and love the adverts for being so out of order deliberately, you can just tell this one just thinks its a bit naughty though.
how about an old lady getting crushed under a bus, that would be a decent campaign.
the advert is sh*t, mainly because it is dodgy
You are correct. We Americans are all idiots. Some day I wish I could leave the shackles of American stupidity and bask in the warm inviting glow of UK intelligence. People so intelligent that...........gotta go my mom is calling.
I'm from the UK.
The ad is not clever.
The ad does not illicit tones of irony as humour.
It's just crap. Really, really crap.
i gotta say . it is a decent ad. it isnt great , it isnt funny , but it is kind of clever with all the phone things etc.
also , i am certain this isnt meant to be shown in the u.s. or europe at all. more likely it is made for the asian markets.
The only problem is the part where he is across the way in another building, snapping photos of a woman whom we aren't sure gave her consent.
I think they should have done that part differently, or just cut the part out where he snapped her picture.
The rest I can live with.
J: it's "elicit". "illicit" means unlawful. "elicit" is evoke, which I believe is what you're aiming for.
Sorry to be grammar nazi, lots of people screw those up and it bugs me. I'm crazy, i know, it's just a word.
Don't worry, Wonderkid. I get your genius ironic sarcasm. clever.
:P
Thanks Engadget: You've just contributed to the viral success of this Ad, encouraging similar further productions.
Viral marketing doesn't work if it doesn't make anyone want the product, so I wouldn't worry about Engadget spreading the word.
The ad agency that created this video should be outed. Pathetic attemtp at viral advertising.
that last post I mean I agree with Wonderkid.. Where is the bloody edit when you need it! and no doubt this post wont end up under the last one I did either.
damn
Okay, that video is definitely creepy.
The add is shit,
but the whole 'stroke the image of a girl to make her do stuff' thing could make a great app for young fappers everywhere.
meh! he didn't tease her clit with a stylus...
@anabouboula
Yea that could spawn an all new market for special styluses !
Time for dumping some marketing managers!
Holy-crappiest advertisement possible. Gosh.
Holly freakin dead peacock!
It was a good video showing the fact it is a touch screen. The whole video he is recording the woman, but as he touches the screen the woman changes in real live. It is designed to show that it is a touch screen and you can interact with things. He even tilts the screen and she moves in real live.
It's just a bit sick that they choose to film a woman sleeping. Would of been much better with a football/basketball fan recording a game and doing similar, eg moving the ball so it goes in the goal/net.
PS I'm from the UK!!!!!!
A successful ad shouldn't need an explaination as you just gave, but thank you anyway.
as Butthead so elonquently says it...
"uugghh, this sucks!"
Really, if they were going to do this they might as well have just made a real porn and somehow featured the phone. This would've been a sexy ad if I wasn't feeling bad for the girl the whole time.
You think that guy's hard-on was totally killed when his mom called? haha sucks to be you
I had this phone last week and returned it after 2 days. 10 minutes of talking and playing with all the 'new' features and the battery was dead.
Not to mention a rather temperamental interface. It really is a beautiful phone, with its carbon fiber back, tempered glass and sexy blue looks, but as a phone it just falls a bit short.
They should make the same ad with a woman doing the stalking and a guy in bed, I think it somehow would be less creepy due to the lower threat, and more noteworthy, plus support equality - of unwholesome behaviour - but equality.
If they do make that I don't need a link to it though :]
i think they could have had the same advert work, by maybe having the girl's actual partner in the same room, playfully manipulating the image of his sleeping (what the hell.. fridgid wife) on his phone, in a kind of, oh you naughty boy way.
but spying on your neighbours from another building...
WTF? Are YOU kidding me?! "Controlling" someone who does not give her consent = rape!!!!!
Uncomfortable. I love LG phones for the most part (Had the CU500 and it rocked, my N95 has taken it's place though) but this ad straight up sucked. Thanks for the heads up on how not to market, Engadget.
I can't lie. I liked it!
I thought it was creative (I'm in the industry).
I thought it (however embelished) did a good job of portraying the phones sex appeal. The one thing that manufacturers would like you to think of their product is sexy.
Also, I think you guys use the term creepy too liberally - he was playing with the phone. It would have been creepy if he was in her room doing it to her - No? We men fantasize (especially after gadgets : )
BTW I'm from the UK (but have lived in the US for 15 years).
Generally speaking the underlying "creepy" factor is the fact that this guy is standing outside her window filming her sleeping - the rest of the commercial with him "manipulating" and "touching" her (the ad goes out of the way to intersperse scenes of him touching the image on the screen with "touching" her directly) is icing on the cake. I don't think anyone is having trouble with the underlying logic of the ad, it's just that one can't help thinking a similar message could have been conveyed in a less creepy fashion (i.e. not have the guy standing creepily outside the window, so it would be easier to see it maybe as her boyfriend or something having some fun).
I don't get it. For what country was this made for? It's really creepy, to put it mildly.
I bet the girl in the phone would've gotten pregnant if the guy's mom didn't call....
Maybe the secret is she gets off on being watched. She is after all in a well lit room with the shades fully open, and she does the little shhh thing at the end. Is that creepy?
Or, we just over ANALizing this?
I think this was probably meant for the EU market - they are less offended by such SHOCK!
Horrible. It looked like something a contestant on 'The Apprentice' would come up with. Geez.
Extremely stupid and boring video.
That's indeed very creepy.
farking tease
I thought the ad was fine. Very European in tone and humor. My ex is Swedish so I saw many similar ads in her VHS collection. A search on YouTube will show other such ads, especially from Germany, Scandinavia, France and Italy. My feeling is that it was made for the Euro market, and only the ending is specific to the country. In the UK, the guy would have a British accent. In Germany, it would be German, etc. Note that the guy's mouth is deliberately covered so that we wouldn't know what language he was speaking.
The point of the ad was to highlight the realism of the hi res camera and the phone's interactivity, and it worked for me. It's the video version of the old Memorex ad.
As for the stalking aspect, how do we know that they're not dating? In the sitcom Friends, couple Ross and Rachel were able to look into each other's apartments. Upon discovering that she was being watched, the woman performed for the guy so she certainly didn't feel threatened. It's no more perverse than phone sex between spouses.. Or a webcam between lovers. And you know what? I often stare lovingly at my sleeping girlfriend without her knowledge (am I supposed to wake her to let her know?). She does the same with me. We think it's romantic. So why not assume the same of the people in this ad?
Wow.. How corny
creepy, or not, I still enjoyed it.
I guess that makes me a creepy old man...
creeper
Who cares if it's a crappy ad. The fact that there is close to a hundred comments about it and I'm sure most of us sent the link to someone at least once. That's sounds like an effective viral campaign to me.
That's the one part that's ambiguous though, as to whether they knew each other or not. I don't have a problem with most of the ad either, since it's him fantasizing with the phone. But the snapping of the picture part IS weird, due to not knowing.
That was in reply to Sam.
I really wish clicking reply once worked, instead of having to click it twice to get it to reply to another post.