Nokia N900 ad suggests a history of mental illness
By Nilay Patel 
posted Nov 10th 2009 10:17AM
posted Nov 10th 2009 10:17AM
P.S.- Are we the only ones who see this as a nightmarish dystopian remake of Pump Up The Volume? Is that just us? Okay.
I smell Tr(oll)uth here..
I smell brainless head...
Dear Steve Jobs, please stop commenting in Engadget - you already had them at "Hello" (or at the first "press the button for a fart sound" iPhone app)...
I don't know about the rest of you guys, but I'm not sleeping in the same room as my N900 any more. It's going to be sleeping inside a safe. In concrete.
There are so MANY great ads for N900 why you want to pick this one ? what did poor Nokia did to you guys ?
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=99E5676D52F876D7&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&v=RAo87IHU_40
DROID freak.
Terrorizes...
Wait'll they get a load of me.
OOP
OOOOOOOOP.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
http://maemo.nokia.com/
N900 Divx playback (720x400, 4.2mbps) and TV-out onto a 50" Plasma TV.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYgiOvINlOA
Nokia as ausomo powa!
I have 3 iPhones and I use my Nokia 3500 Classic more!
I love that that since the beginning that I could have music at elevator level playing in my Mono BT headset untill a call came in, and not having to worry about falling asleep with the phone drooling on it or the screen breaking when it fell off the bed.
It's just you.
i say its soooo much more like the PS3 commercials......
That's what happens when you have 25 tasks running in your head at once.
not bad if you can accomplish all of them at once.
Looks like mother goose been playin' around in your egg salad...
Well, at least he skipped the coffee that day. No telling what we'd have ended up with.
The ad was honestly bad enough at the beginning, then at the end the awkwardness just shut up to the power of the nth. The guy on the left, speaking like some over knowledgeable hacker or something, reminiscent of Live Free or Die hard. The horror-ish soundtrack, the straightforwardness of the interviewer, like he's talking to mental patients (which they seem to be). I'm not even going to go into the second part, with the "user generated content" getting out of hand.
all finns interview like this, scary is it not?
still want one...
I guess it had to happen eventually. Some Emos have found work in the advertising trades, and here's their idea of branding and product promotion. God help us when they get elected to public office...
Ads like this have been airing since the birth of tv commercials. It's the brilliant marketing idea that if you make an ad shocking/strange/awkward enough, more people will talk about it, and no publicity is bad publicity. I mean, it obviously worked since we're commenting in an article specifically about their ad...sooo....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtBa5SS33JI
lol that was scary!
but its the phone that really matters, and n900 is truly gonna be the next big thing!
Its got an amazing feature set, with the omap processor and the 1gb of ram (256 in built + 768 virtual), it really may be as fast as its advertised!
When do the self destructing, sobbing alcoholics get their moment in the marketing limelight, huh?
The N900 is one SICK *** phone!! is the message of this spot... duh...
I personally love the strange Sci-Fi ads. The DROID ads where pretty cool, even the 1984 Macintosh ad. This one is another to add to the books.
I really enjoyed this one, I'm glad to see I'm not alone. "That was awesome!"
like wat do u guys have against nokia.. everytime u guys always post something stupid about them..
W T F ?
"THAT WAS AWESOME"
Awesome. Definitely taken some influence from scene in Transformers with the Nokia in the glass box
The editing was similar to Paranormal Activity, as well.
A quite interesting ad for techno geeks and gadget freaks but weird and incomprehensible for Average Joe's. I guess this phone doesn't cater to the mainstream. (Still want one.)
Thats what i like about it. it is a bit different. It is not trying to be another phone. It just is... nokia got some good messaging around open source "Open source - Open ended" Now Im just waiting for Amazon to deliver this puppy into my hands
"I guess this phone doesn't cater to the mainstream." -- No, it doesn't. Nokia has said they don't expect it to sell to the mainstream; they're releasing it so that developers can get their hands on the tech, and come up with great apps for it. The *next* Maemo phone will be aimed at the mainstream.
Of course, i knew Nokia would f*ck it up some way!! (Will not stop me of getting one though)
On the other hand, Engadget's constant dissing of Nokia suggests a history of self-esteem issues.
I am the medium, I am the message, I am the comment
The brilliance of this ad is lost to the dumb the wrong side of the Atlantic who just 'don't get it'. Too much dumbed down reality TV in your lives? Sad.
More like i got bored 1 minute into the clip ..
They prob tryed being all David Lynch and came out like OH DAVID !
Only pointless idiots try to make something better than it is by saying "You just don't get it". Now THAT'S sad ...
I would like to comment on the film clip: It gave me douche chills. Thank you.
I don't get the point of his rant.
You wished for Search companies, wireless carriers, phone makers, and computer makers to disappear.
What do they have to do with Apple? Without Motorola...there would barely been anything to build off of for mobile phones. Without Microsoft or IBM, Steve Jobs never would've risen to the top (read Microsoft/Apple beginnings and such). Without Google...well, even if the iPhone materialized without Motorola's start...there would be no YouTube...search, maps...blah blah blah. The current Nokia/Apple suit explains Nokia's involvement. I mean...you're speaking nonsense.
Apple had a chance to reign, and they failed. Get over it...get past it...and just be happy they have the MP3 market. That's a very lucrative sector.
That comment was meant for the commenter below. Dumb Engadget system.
What does this device change? Nothing.
Who cares about this device? No one (other than nationalistic Finns).
Ads such as these have zero credibility because the companies that create them have zero credibility. They represent nothing other than their latest earnings + ad agency BS.
Apple is about something other than their latest earnings, because Steve willed it to be so. He is real. Love Apple/Steve, Hate Apple/Steve. Apple is real. They/he are/is credible.
These companies are fake. Which why we could care less if Microsoft, IBM, Dell, Nokia, Motorola, Google, Verizon and Palm all disappeared off the face of the earth tomorrow.
gimp
Good troll... Good! Sit!
Woof!
Troll, trolls, trolling, trolls, troll, trolls, trolling, trolls.
=)
I want it.
I woulda went with
"Sit Ubu sit... good troll" but yeah. :)
nice trolling. For a minute there i almost thought you were serious. I was just thinking there is no way the human mind could actually come to that kind of conclussion that you did. But i guess sometimes neurons do misfire.
Whats all this Taking over the world Biz (DROID) mixed with alien attacks
and now this dark and moody psycho stuff with nasty transformations ..
I thought these devices where to be our day to day friends ..
and they try to get our attention with this pretty scary nasty stuff ..
Not sayin they are bad ad's i just think its just not something that makes me wanna go
" oh cool i wanna be part of this "
In fact it makes me go
" oh i just wanna run away "
Pretty obvious these devices where not intended for any female users .. my Girl thinks they are crap just based on the perception from the ads.
mmhhhh
1.) The ad was too damn long. I have ADHD. I need the message to be delivered in 30 seconds or less.
2.) This doesn't make me want a phone. Droid was teasing...sci fi. This was borderline psycho.
3.) All I know is it's a device, I really don't get what it does. But it does at least tell what it is right away (after 2 mins) unlike the first Droid teasers.
I'd still give taste and points to the Droid commercials though.
This is not a tv commercial. It is just a "viral" marketing video made by Nokia only for online viewers.
"Official" tv ads are completely different thing (though I'm not sure if Nokia will even advertise this puppy).
Oh okay. I was kind of thinking that. But didn't know. Because I was about to say...how are they going to shorten this to be a commercial. Hmm.
I hope they do advertise it though. It's about time they brought some good Nokia phones to the US.
Most people hear Nokia here and think of the prepaid junk and the low end phones in most carriers.
First thing I thought of when I saw it was Altered States
sensory deprivation/overload for your phone
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbYT3UclhNY
Wow what an ad.... its dangerous...
I don't get the connection with "Pump up the Volume." I think Nilay just wanted to post something from a movie he likes. The movie is much more prophetic to today when $1000 in equipment will give you a pod cast and a good idea/presentation will give you an audience.
I got goose bumps.....that was ace !
that was the best commercial I've seen in years, from creative stand point. Really. Even better then Droid's latest.
I loved the way he said "...guys on the other side of the glass ..." - great reference to the viewers!
Freakish, and yet...
They obviously did not just mean the viewers; if you focus not on the people at the table but on the black-colored corners of the room, you will actually see 4 faces. If you are having trouble seeing them, then look on the frame captured at the top.
La Sombra hasn't heard of symbolism in advertising
This is not an ad, it's a launch/ teaser video; possibly developed for viral transmission. It's purpose is VERY different from an ad. L
One'd think Mr.Hotshot lawyer here'd know the difference, but eh...
Sweet. Very cool concept.
Sweet concept. Very cool. Represents the psychosis and obsession with perfection.
That was Brilliant and ballsy. Consider me impressed.
Brilliant and disturbing! Mix and remix! OH, boy.
How the heck that movie has anything to do with the ad o.O
The producers have been watching the movie "Killing Room".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoqAszG5EYc&feature=related
Cool ad though. Very.
I am the message.
Whatever Nokia, can you just release it instead? The longer you wait, the more Android 2.0 phones are coming out. SE X10 is just around the corner. Besides, typical Nokia, in the next couple of months I expect an N905, and then N910, each with bug fixes and form factor/build quality adjustments, leaving N900 users as beta testers.
I was interested until I learned it used the Edge network and cost $700+. Maybe its better on another carrier, but I had AT&T at the time, and the person at Nokia I spoke with said it was Edge.
I had the Nokia 770 (which was the age old grandfather of this device, the first Maemo device). It was "OK" for the time, but unless things have changed drastically, don't expect much mainstream support for this. Perhaps that is the niche market for this device though, Linux users and people who constantly like to tweak things, which it should do very well for that.
Cool add though, liked it!
It has European and T-Mobile 3G bands. IIRC, it goes up to 10Mb/s down, 4Mb/s up.
You guys are so biased against Nokia its disturbing.
Boycotting Engadget
Note to Nilay: the whole "Something McSomethingelse" moniker lost its edge about 4 years ago. KTHX.
Yep. Without getting one in our hands . we end up in pshycatric warrd like this . :P
there is more,
check http://maemo.nokia.com for penguins with laser eyes!
The commercial leaves me thinking a couple of different things.
A. I'm pissed off there is no ATT US vairant.
B. I really want this phone, which leaves me more A.
C. Is it worth the risk to either use it with no 3g on ATT's?
D. Try it out on Tmobile prepaid.
Yet another failed attempt of trying to be "alternative".
Incredibly bad advertising.
gleaming the cube was better.
Did that ad just get a virus?! All that viral marketing has finally infected the companies themselves…
I lol'd when he started turning into random shapes.
HOLY SHIT
Why for did you inflict that Pump Up The Vomit video on me? Now I have to go rinse my brain out with something caustic. Frickin' ew, dude.
Looove the Ad. The Zelda Twilight Princess similarity is very strong. I'm the only one that sees it that way? Besides, the penguin at 2:02 is a clear reference to Maemo's Linux roots. Good ad!!! Props to nokia.