Palm's Pixi TV spot heads in a new direction, bids adieu to creepy redhead
By Joshua Topolsky 
posted Nov 11th 2009 9:14PM
posted Nov 11th 2009 9:14PM
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What's engadget's fascination with the word "creepy" in every other story? Seriously find a new word. And get rid of "whip" too, ya bunch of nerds.
You don't understand anything. KEEP YOUR STUPID COMMENTS IN YOUR POCKET!
Seriously, it's very creepy.
This was less than a 5 star commenting experience.
Thanks for adding to increase it Joshua ;)
Back on topic, this ad is better than the previous ones. I hope they bring customable backs to the pre too.
When did we stop being able to + - the writers' comments?
@Akio Morita
Yeah, I just realized that.They just want more control over the website. Still owned by aol, though, you can't ignore that.
maybe after the time everyone turned on Nilay
http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/08/archos5-android-pmp-now-on-sale-at-amazon/
embarrassing
Ah yes, Itchy Finger Nilay. He once banned a commenter for typing too loud.
@John
Wow... that was brutal. I've had bad experiences with Engadget's editors before for starting a petition to try to get them to fix the commenting system(I got 150 signatures!) and I got banned. But seeing what they did to some of the other members was horrible. Actually to the point of editing someone's comment to include the user's name and email address telling people to spam him. Engadget's kind of a jerk...
I read the comments on most stories every day but I don't recall that happening.
Lol, i think its largely due to the last extreme down voting, which i believe was Chris, in the story of an android crashing the spell checker. The commenters got pissed, and started bashing him, since he probably made more mistakes in spelling then they (Developers) did in the whole making of the OS.
@Kamill
If you're going to criticize somebody for a common mistake such as a spelling mishap, you better be pretty dang perfect and not make mistakes yourself. No one likes a hypocrite.
Actually it's part of a whole slew of new stuff coming -- planned for a LONG time -- which should help with all manner of trolling, spamming, etc.
...amongst other alterations.
Get ready! Changes ahead!
Exciting times, people.
Not really. I like the old engadget-uncut better.
Trolls will be trolls. That's the cost of an open forum.
I suppose I'm banned now ...
@ Joshua
If I could + your second comment, I would.
Hey Josh...
Do those changes include having an avatar system that works?
I'm a man of few requests.
When Obama promised Change, I didn't want it on my internetz
but seriously, I'll take trolling over censorship and unfair banning any day
since you're here, josh.... what was with that whitelist article i saw earlier... it was all editors! freaked me out a bit but i wanted to join in on the convo :(
@Joshua Topolsky - You guys love writing about net neutrality, so how about giving us a little comment and rating neutrality?
While we're doing all these new site "upgrades" can we change the fact that I had to make this comment just to access my account and find my last posts?
kinda digging the music
reminds me of Eberg
It's "Sleepyhead" from Passion Pit's record, "Manners." Great album.
Thank you very much good sir!
not to piss anyone off but the music is the same as the psp canada ad & they look similar too with the psp & pixi flying around.
Glad to know they dropped that redhead thingy
It reminds me of Sigur Ros, but sped up
@Dick Rhee
And less Icelandic/Hopelandic.
Mmmmm mmmmmm. I sure do love passion pits, and I'm not talking about a band. Either way. Commercial was pretty good, I plan on buying a Pixi. Wish it had more horsepowerz, but it'll do just fine as the replacement for my centro. Gotta say the price is what's selling me. I just returned my Instinct HD which was too expensive at $278 out the door. It was way too buggy still even after MR1 to justify a price of $278. This Pixi will be $108 out the door. However if the Instinct HD had the same hardware but with android on it man it would have been sweet. Samsung should make that happen. The hardware was awesome, light sensor, proximity sensor, the haptic feedback is nice(feels like more than one vibrator in there), super responsive screen, awesome camera, awesome video camera. All held back by a crappy OS that crashes when a sms comes in while doing anything else. Unacceptable. If it costed $100 or $150 after rebate I might have kept it even with the bugs.
Decent ad, a better choice of music would have suited.
Wow. Actually makes me want one :)
If I didn't have a Pre.
Excellent ad! Much improved, Palm.
I second that. Much better than the first. Palm should ask for a refund from the first dude.
I still imagine the ad ending with a sudden jump cut to Tamara Hope again, only this time the countryside is dark and stormy and she looks very displeased. And it's only on for like half a second before it cuts to black, so it totally messes with your mind.
Man, I think that Nokia ad a few days back really did something to me.
now SERO talks start again
http://www.petitiononline.com/SERO/petition.html
The song still creeps me out, so yeah.
i would love to try android and webOS i love the candbar format, i would rather have this than a pre- inless the keyboard sucks like the pre's. i have a tilt 2 and the keyboard is amazing- if i were to have a secondary phone it would be android or webOS if ATT had any
There are too many better phones out there. Palm is going to fold sooner
if they keep spending money on useless ad!
useless? Im sorry, but you seem to have no understanding of how a company works. the advertise. why do you think apple is so popular? because they advertise the heck out of their products. Palm isn't wasting their money, if anything, this is what they need to do the most.
*they not the :P engadget, fix the friggin comment system -.-
Nice. I think Palm's new devices are destined to compete solely with other portrait hard QWERTY devices, ie RIM. The BB OS is ugly as sin.
I'd hit it.
weird music but about 10 steps above damn creepy lady ads
i like i like
Yeah those ads were creepy, there's people lying in the morgue that aren't that pale.
The music is Sleepyhead by Passion Pit.
Pretty decent ad. Not earthmoving by any means, but definitely an upgrade.
Good pacing. Loved how the music added a very nice extra dimension to the ad.
Very informative without having to explain anything.
Better. But that song...what the hell is going on with that? I feel like I'll have a diminutive woman following me if I buy the phone. Which I plan to do. But I don't want the creepy woman!
the only creepy woman I can think of that would follow you would be Lila from the show Dexter. even then, i dunno i'd probably put the blocks to her anyway. heh.
Me on the other hand, I'd follow you anywhere, pumpkin, heh. Does that make me creepy, too? I like my little nerdies defensless, Rarrr!
@palm How about some video recording?!? So stupid that my Pre doesn't have video yet!!! I'm going to blackberry when sprint gets one with wifi.
Web Os is looking mighty fine. To bad the hardware it's being paired with isn't as impressive.
While I'm sure the Pixi is worth $100 and that is a perfectly good price, I'd hope that Sprint would consider professional phones as well such as the HD2 or the TG01.
Aww :-( I liked that chick... she was hawt!
who did the music? alvin and the chipmunks?
thank you! finally an ad from Palm that isn't incredibly weird....
Whew!! That 30 secs made me really dizzy but still cute phone.
ahh... glad my speaker didn't work, is BGM really creepy?
It's better than the last campaign, but not really very ground breaking or attention drawing. Seems average and not very noteworthy. The real problem is the phone itself, it is just eclipsed nowadays by all the other phones which are more exciting. This ad promotes touch screen, portrait and landscape mode, phone capabilities when up next to your ear, custom case designs, two finger zoom, maps, viewing photos, something about fun, and the Sprint network. Is that enough to break out in the saturated market of smart phones?
WebOS still has a better interface than Android and is arguably easier to use than the iPhone. Gestures plus multitasking make navigating a breeze. This ad does a good job of showing the fluidity of WebOS.
Now, if only it were really that snappy...
@wmurch3
"WebOS still has a better interface than Android and is arguably easier to use than the iPhone. Gestures plus multitasking make navigating a breeze. This ad does a good job of showing the fluidity of WebOS."
Isn't the Android interface constantly evolving? Which Android interface? 1.5, 1.6, 2.0? I don't use Android so I don't know. Also, what about the iPhone is so hard to use? Again, I don't use one so I don't know. I've played with one and I didn't think anything was particularly hard about it.
There just isn't a killer app or feature shown in this ad and that will get this phone killed when it comes to sales in the smart phone market. I think the ad is blah, despite how good or not good the Pixi actually is.
The music kinda reminded me of "Nigeru Mono" from Paprika...
Hmm, chipmunks on helium theme music. Now my life is haunted forever.
C'mon now Palm, can't you make a good commercial?
I agree that the chick in the previous ads was a bit on the freakish side. Glad they changed direction. Good show!
This is a much better ad indeed! I liked the Passion Pit soundtrack and I loved the photography. It was about time they stepped up their ad campaigns.
Much better than the older ads. Wish them good luck on the sales.
I hope everyone will give the actress a pass for the creepy commercials. Blame the director and the photographer/cinematographer and writers. She's actually cute and probably doesn't stalk around freaking people out in real life. Not her fault at all. http://www.imdb.com/media/rm3293354752/nm0394045
its nice to see a phone ad actually showing off the phone
cough droid ad cough
Oh. My. God.
THEY SHOWED OFF MULTI-TOUCH.
SOMEONE GET STEVE JOBS ON THE PHONE.
Over react much? Palm is right where they want to be. When did they ever say they want to take over the market? This phone will probably do quite well just like the centro.
*watches commerical with no sound* ah much better...
Holy...
It's Max and Jason: Still Up...
Anyone?
Yeah, but it still doesn't have wifi. Which genius made that decision?
So, the MILESTONE has multitouch, but the CLIQ doesn't. What's that about? Interesting that both of Moto's U.S. Android phones don't have multitouch. Engadget, why have you not addressed this?????
There was *nothing* wrong with the [previous] Pre ad campaign.
The woman wasn't "creepy". The problem was that the ad campaign espoused "in control" and "mellow", and in today's society with nano-second attention spans and "What have you done for me lately?" attitudes, "mellow" is seen as "irrelevant".
In other words, Joshua, *you* saw the woman as "creepy"...but there was nothing wrong with her. It was all in *your* mind.
Palm pre girl: I'd hit it.
trying the pixi for 30 days and if it sucks going to either get the hero or jump back to verizon for the eris, solid plan.
Solid plan. I hope you like webOS as much as I do.
Great song but still not sold on the Pixie
You should check out the Pixi then!
Passion pit! I love this song, as well as Palm. No matter what, I'll still back my Pre
SMALL SCREENS ARE SO 2007...not fun... boring.. old.. useless... obsolete
your kids know this... NO THANKS Palm NO THANKS Sprint
I think this is a great ad.
It is trendy and hip, but doesn't copy the iPhone ad (or try to make fun of it). It attempts to stand on its own two feet, and does an admiral job.
Most importantly, it makes me want the phone (even though I own the Hero and owned the Pre, and I already know that I don't like the Pre keyboard). That being said, it still makes me want to buy the phone. Well done, Palm.
Ah yes...we dropped the creepy lady, and dove right into the chipmunks doing some acid tripping techno house music while spinning around. Excuse me while i go throw-up. On a side note this commercial is better
Gee, that commercial is really creepy! Whats with all the high-pitched wailing (is that supposed to be singing?) The sound is seriously deranged!
Its called originality. Passion pit is quite a popular band for someone you accuse of 'wailing'
I LOVE the music, but it pains me to say that "Sleepyhead" wasn't the greatest choice for the spot:
#1 Already only 2.5 minutes long intact, it sounds horrible chopped into bits for a commercial edit.
#2 It kinda makes the action of the commercial much more disorienting.
#3 For someone who doesn't already love/know the song, it's Tamara Hope-level creepy. I see seniors turning off hearing aids until it's over.
For a more commercially-viable soundtrack, anything off of their Chunk of Change EP is really good. "Cuddle Fuddle" has a horrible name, but inescapable rhythm. Manners has just a bit too much of the chipmunk-speed vocals.
love the music!
don't know about the pixi since i went from a palm way back to a blackberry.
hey, the music got my attention, at least!!
http://www.reverbnation.com/c./l14/1273568/15281/Label/396716/Fan/MissionsAgent_40455/link
http://www.reverbnation.com/c./l14/1273564/15281/Label/396716/Fan/MissionsAgent_40454/link
Weird, the device look like it's for more serious people and radiates a calm, and the ad goes for the exact opposite, but hey that's how ads work of course, I forgot.
Saw the Pixi in Best Buy, it is tiny like the Pre... Still hoping for a larger Palm device.
SanDisk is now using a creepy redhead to sell SlotRadio cards:
http://slotradio.com/slotRadio/cards