LL Cool J's hilariously aggressive N97 ad: "don't call it a comeback"
By Paul Miller 
posted Jun 15th 2009 9:34AM
posted Jun 15th 2009 9:34AM
[Thanks, Jorge]
Please note: If you're a current Engadget commenter, you do not need to re-register. Simply login and you will be prompted to select a username.
Uh... What was that?
Probaby the best thing I've seen all day, that's what that was.
Your day only just started right?
"Uh... What was that?"
x2
Mama said stop spending money on useless phones.
An iPhone on 0:42 :S
HTC Touch Pro FTW!
Better than the HTC add with the Fresh Prince-
"Take it from me, iPhones just don't understand"
god I do these all day...
wouldn't "doin it" have sent a better essage about there products than "a comeback"??
Wait till Cool J decides to flip for Apple..."Goin Back To Cali" with a pic of Cupertino
And Since, Nie inch Nails are Apple fanboys....please sombody make an iPhone vid with a buch of photos of the device towering over the rest, and "closer" can be the soundtrack. Apple wants to fuck you like an animal.
Now that this door has been open... lets abuse the hell out of it!
Better than the HTC add with the Fresh Prince-
"Take it from me, iPhones just don't understand"
god I do these all day...
wouldn't "doin it" have sent a better message about there products than "a comeback"??
Wait till Cool J decides to flip for Apple..."Goin Back To Cali" with a pic of Cupertino
And Since, Nie inch Nails are Apple fanboys....please sombody make an iPhone vid with a buch of photos of the device towering over the rest, and "closer" can be the soundtrack. Apple wants to fuck you like an animal.
Now that this door has been open... lets abuse the hell out of it!
The end of this ad when it shows the black N97 for a few flash seconds, it resembled the iPhone. Believe it or not, it gave the impression that Nokia is knocked out by iPhone.
The ad came subconsciously as if the real winner at the end: the black one that knocks out the white N97 is the iPhone.
Please don't take this wrongly, I am not a fanboy, all my phones has been Nokia.
But nowadays the name Nokia came to my subconscious like a Buick, expensive old school kinda outdated thing with copycat, me too, non-innovative features and resemblance that are favorites amongst senior citizen.
Time for me to change brands. :)
THAT...was awesome. probably the best mobile phone advert i have ever seen. wasn't lame and too "euro" like sony ericsson's; wasn't a bunch of hyped-up rubbish marketing like apple's. this was in your face, fast paced, froward momentum, showing you what the phone can do. i hope to see this on american television because this is the EXACT commercial that can compete with the iphone.
I wonder if those Facebook members in the ad are Nokia employees.
Nice video
I didn't say anything about the iPhone. Anyway, what I was trying to say is that Nokia needs to do that ghost code which allows the Pre to get on iTunes and then they'll have a chance at this "comeback."
Comeback is an odd choice of words for them because it implies they were big in the smartphone space to begin with.
Yeah, it's kind of sad (and funny - like a burning clown) that a lot of people don't get it? This commercial dosen't try to be hip och Apple smug, it is trying to be funny and ironic. And it does a good job of it. This kind of humor seems to go over some (Apple fanbois) heads it seems?
I like when a company has irony and is willing to play on it:
"The song chosen is from LL Cool J (given name: James T. Smith), an iconic 24+ year veteran and legend of Hip Hop music, and the song is a 1991 release in response to media and competitors claiming he was too old, washed up, and irrelevant."
http://www.symbian-freak.com/news/009/06/n97_comeback_promotional__video.htm
Seriously lame. They better get on the iTunes train like everyone else.
Dude, every time i see a post from you on any article you always mention Apple or i-phone even when they dont even have anything about Apple or i-phone writen in them. You must be infected with i-rabies. Grow up you SFI
I didn't say anything about the iPhone. Anyway, what I was trying to say is that Nokia needs to do that ghost code which allows the Pre to get on iTunes and then they'll have a chance at this "comeback."
Comeback is an odd choice of words for them because it implies they were big in the smartphone space to begin with.
@Paul a. Chapel
You do realize Nokia already provides a plug-in for iTunes sync on Mac OS, right? They have done for years.
Yes, I'm aware of that. They need to do it for the N97 or they're going to be toast.
@Paul a. Chapel
Do you really think that if N97 doesn't support iTunes someone will kill every nokia employee, cook them, rip the flesh from their bones and finally put their meat between two pieces of bread and eat them?
I think there's something wrong with you.
@Jay, who said: "Do you really think that if N97 doesn't support iTunes someone will kill every nokia employee, cook them, rip the flesh from their bones and finally put their meat between two pieces of bread and eat them?"
Yes, that's exactly what I was saying. LOL. You should be around for all my translations.
People still use the crap that is iTunes?
why the hell would anyone use itunes that charges freakin 1.29 for the same songs amazon has for .99??
@ Kaitu KID
why would anyone pay for their music anyways, if 30 cents matters that much to you?
And itunes is still a pretty solid music app. Its what i grew up with, so i'm down with it
@ Kaitou
You know that the 30 cent price disparity is set by the labels because they hate the stranglehold iTunes has so they're trying to help Amazon out...right? Read wired.
@duh
thats a pretty big move for an industry. Do you have a link to the article? I would love to check it out.
I can't believe I'm agreeing with Paul a. Chapel ;_;
Only 12-18 year olds use iBloat software.
I meant about it being lame. iTunes sucks.
Nokia to Youth: "We Don't Get It"
Seriously, they could have had an ad of an old man dancing in Hammer pants and it would of had the same effect.
Nick to World: "I have no sense of humour"
I know Duh! Where was Soulier Boy?
Nokia Got a New Phone
N97 on T-Mo
Watch me Crank that Cellphone Dance then call 1'my hoes
Now Watch Me
Youuuu Crank that Cellphone Dance
Youuuu Crank that Cellphone dance
Youuuu Crank that Cellphone dance
Youuuu Crank that Cellphone dance
Youuuu Crank that Cellphone dance
(Rinse, repeat)
Aaron, I actually think I have a pretty decent sense of humor, but I don't think, "what smartphone commercial do I find the funniest, I'm interested in that one." That's the way idiots think. Are you an idiot?
Youth to Paul A. Chapel:
You're a horrible Chapelle Knock-off.
Actually, now that I think about it, the old man dancing in Hammer pants, wouldn't have been such a bad idea.
Cool
Haha I get it!
Snappy... nice
Liek LOL! And that should make me buy one? o.O Its weird/childish and dont even show what the phone can do - lol at the wall of text in the ad!
Today has sucked so far, that was the highlight.
So where exactly do we find the hilarious aggressiveness?
Yeah Tweety Bird could've easily fit in to this video.
Poor Engadget, classifying LL as one of those rappers who would ever threaten physical violence.
That beat was hot though.
That was quite nice!
in my opinion better than the odd zen meditation pre ad.
hey nokia...until you actually put a decent phone (like this one) on a carrier and offer some sort of price cut for getting a plan, NO ONE F$%#ING CARES!!!!!
Agreed. The reviews on the N97 are pretty bad. Even though the phone has some great features, they were just sandwiched together. I love Nokia's build quality, but Symbian, as supposidly powerful as it is, needs a major overhaul.
EXACTLY! How do you (Nokia) expect to compete with subsidized Demigod phones from Palm, Apple, RIM (and others) that are selling for roughly $199.00? NO ONE (at least not west of the pond) is willing to pay $700+ for a phone especially since you still need a cell phone plan anyways. WE HERE ARE SUBSIDY JUNKIES (have been since the start)! If you (and SE///) are attempting to use a native EU model here, IT ANT GONNA WORK! We like uber high tech phones for cheep even if it means that we will be a contract "slave to the rhythm" for the next 2 years.
Oh, Nokia. I think it's time you let go of the idea you'll ever come back to your glory days of the late 90's and early 2000's.
There was a time when Nokia handsets were the bee's knees. Easy to navigate, functioned well and build like tanks. Everyone had one.
But those were simpler times, when WAP was the most advanced connectivity feature and phones just made phone calls (and played Snake. God I loved playing Snake.)
I don't have any popularity charts, but I can't imagine Nokia is anywhere near as well used anymore.
I used to carry around my sister's old Nokia phone JUST to play snake.
Seriously. The Snake port on the old ass Nokia's was the best snake game I've played. How come that went away?
Old Nokia Snake > Tetris.
LL Cool J = Fail.
Canibus >>> LL Cool J
mamas gunna knock you out
I'm not sure what the result of unsigned right-shifting Canibus by LL Cool J would be...
Apt, Nokia are so 1990s.....
What the heck are you talking about? You don't know a shit about phones then.
Or I was being ironic. Cheers for playing along.
thats why the use this song because this song is so 90's
Lame!
I think, NWA guys won´t be happy with this "Straight outta Compton" Ripoff....
Considering this song is 17 years old and straight outta compton is 21 years old, I think most NWA fans would be well over it by now.
Wow.. this is LL Cool J's "Mama Said Knock You Out" that came out in 1990. Yeah, 19 years ago. This is definitely no Straight Outta Compton rip-off.
That was actually a pretty cool ad.
MY HAT IS LIKE A SHARK'S FIN!
lol! ^_^
actually Nokia is the best selling maufactures in the world as a whole, not that im sticking up for them, since I am a HTC fan; but im jus stating the facts.
Oh hi, 90s.
Funny..I had the phone for one day and sold it.
I think it's a decent commercial... not sure about the "hilariously aggressive" part though. Kids these days love the old school. But I don't know how in touch they are with their inner LL Cool J.
Pretty much Nokia's way of saying "hey... we still make phones! buy them!"
I'm buying one...along with a "3 wolves 1 moon" t-shirt
mmh if you want to make an ad like this...
there is an app for that..
on your iphone ;)
That's a very good one - lol!
I can't help but like this advert. Mainly because my photo is in it.
That was horrible.
Oh, look, they have another version for it: http://www.bags-b2b.com/b2b/pics/Iron_Eyeglasses_Case.jpg .
I can't believe they're still producing these bricks in 2009.
video no longer available or just not working or me. IDK, that sucks. I wanted to see the funny in it.
fail
Am I the only one who saw this video and thought of "In Living Color"?
"Momma gonna kick me out..."
they killed that song
Yeah if an iPhone replaced that N97 then this would breaking news and there'd be nothing hilarious about it...
it's gonna take more than ll to make this succesful in USA
Let's see iPhone 99 or nokia $700
Hmmh what will America choose???
You can tell it was done by people who don't know English as a first language...its a common design trend to have song lyrics displayed as they are sung when English songs are played in non-English speaking countries (check out some anime-intros in in japan (that are in psudo-english) or rap videos from Sweden) for some reason they LOVE it...
It seems un-creative and redundant to me...but just saying
thoughts?
They do that in English-speaking countries too. At least, I don't know who made this rap video, just assuming they're American, but it certainly does the 'write what he says' thing ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggzSzl2oDHI
As for the ad, eh whatever?
Hah, nice sociological observation. :) It may be the case here, yes.
I'm from Romania and i dig karaoke-like stuff, probably for the reason you mentioned.
Anyway, the ad only comes to complement this expensive Nokia eyeglasses case.
Anybody who doesn't like s60 has either never used it, or has developed for it.
For daily use, s60 surpasses android, Mobile OSX, and WinMo by a good portion. I'd actually go as far to say that s60 is the ONLY modern smart phone OS that is up to par. Its just so flexible, fast, capable, and has an abundance of applications. The problem arises when developing applications, which, admittedly is a complete nightmare. However, this means that there aren't so many stupid apps (fart apps anybody?) most of the applications that I've downloaded to my s60 phones actually do something that I need them to that would never be possible on a closed app eco system phone (Mobile OSX or Android).
Is that y it's a failed os here in America ,???
Not even 1 USA carrier subsidizes that phone, weak pathetic.,
Do you realize that over the term of a contract you pay for the phone you've subsidized anyway.
It failed as a OS here because people are idiots. WinMo was never a success to the mass public either. The standard consumer just isn't very tech savvy. Therefor they'd rather download applications that make noises when you press a button instead of downloading ones that actually help them complete anyway. Mobile OSX isn't even a smart OS. There no multitasking, only recently have you been able to copy and paste, and its very simple.
Judging by your spelling and logic, I'd say you fit into the group of users that enjoy the fart applications. No problem with that, I just prefer to get stuff done on my phone.
Sounds like nokia desperate to not be crushed by iphone3gs
Nokia admit defeat in USA already
Americans will never choose u over iPhone
Go back to cloning
USA 320 million Americans
67% of all Internet traffic is on iPhone
Talk about sick stats
USA could care less about nokia
Y is it that no USA carrier subsidiZes n series,?
Exactly!!!!
Where the hell do you get the time to post so much crack-infested non-sense?
I mean does the iPhone really get you that high. I'm pretty sure you're using it incorrectly if that is the case. Stop sniffing the draining battery acid and liquid crystals.
Why would Nokia care about US?
USA is complete disaster when it comes to telecommunications:
- Totally messed up market with different techs and freqs.
- Totally messed up market with operators who like to put something up in the *rs* of customers. (And you don't even realize that)
- Most of the normal people there are buying only stuff that is "made in US"
- Most of the normal people there are buying only from operators.
Nobody gives a shit about 320 million people with those "features" above when you can go to Indonesia, Bangladesh and Pakistan which have over 500 million people. And of course there's India with 1100 million etc.
67% of all internet traffic is not from iphone. Not even 67% of all mobile device traffic.
And that is why Nokia couldn't care less for US.
Nokia $700
iPhone $99
Wonder what will be more successful,???
i guess you are one of those people who get scammed into thinking $99 is the final price for the phone and not :
$99 + $30 per month data x 24 + 49.99 x 24
now with an unlocked unsubsidized phone one can switch from say tmobile and att at any other month as well as use prepaid cards.
so is really
$699 ( got mines for $524 ) n97
or $2018.76 iphone
not to mention you're using a old iphone 8gb to compare to a 32gb phone.
othewise it would be around the 2500+ range
thats what carriars want to lock you into a contract.
oh and you love to make up statistics do you?
most of the internet traffic are taken up by bittorrent and usenet.
maybe you forgot the decimal .67
its all about the price...
This phone is as dated as the song used to promote it. Terrible.
@Paul Miller:
"The song chosen is from LL Cool J (given name: James T. Smith), an iconic 24+ year veteran and legend of Hip Hop music, and the song is a 1991 release in response to media and competitors claiming he was too old, washed up, and irrelevant."
source: http://www.symbian-freak.com/news/009/06/n97_comeback_promotional__video.htm
I think it's funny, that a company has a sense of irony, is willing to voice it also and does not have a stick up their arse (and delete whatever negative comments show up in forums, for example).
Sean Nichols, who works at Dailey & Associates in West Hollywood (previously Deutsch Inc. advertising) is a fraud. Check his references before hiring him and complete a thorough personality analysis. His temperament is explosive, written communication is poor at best, and client presence is awkward and ineffective. He is not "good people". Beware.
Awesome ad! Awesome phone!
uh....What was that?
Now on the serious note, I'm glad to see Nokia "taste" have changed on their N series commercials....now if you really want to make competition pay....how about you lower the price.