According to a report from
Advertising Age, Palm has mercifully, finally, really parted ways with its ad agency, Modernista -- the house responsible for
some of our
least favorite ads ever. If you need a memory jog, here's them
telling the world that they loved creeping people out with Palm ads. The
AdAge article says that the company is currently in talks with various other ad shops, though there's no clear word on who that new team will be, or when we'll see the fruits of their labor. We don't have much to add to this in commentary except to say that this is probably the second smartest thing Palm has done in a span of seven days -- the first was striking that
amazing deal on Verizon for a super-cheap Palm Pre Plus along with free Mobile Hotspot service. Now, we can look forward to a future where our children won't cower in fear when they see a Palm ad on television, and we can sleep at night without the image of that pale woman burned into our minds. Of course, now that we've seen it, we can never un-see it.
posted April 5th 2010 7:43PM
Yeah good luck with that. They're going to need it.
@NewL Glad to see they've decided to maybe use human actors in their commercials. Man, was she creeeeeppyyy.
@Chizzed
Amen. She looks like the Borg queen from Star Trek: First Contact, only with less "singularity gone wrong" and more "this is your brain on yoga"....
@NewL
Is it just me, or does it seem like Palm should have ran away screaming simply from the name of the ad company?
@NewL So this is just one check out of 100 items on their checklist to full recovery... Yeah, they'll need more than just luck.
@NewL
They need to contact team Engadget as their next partners.
@NewL
1 year too late for Palm.
Palm + Modernista = FacePalm
@NewL I'm one of the few who actually likes the aesthetics and music of these Palm ads (especially the music in the Pixi ad) but, and it is a big BUT, these ads have too many mixed messages:
What am I supposed to think of a chinese mass spectacle? It surely is impressive but carries no message at all - well at least not the right one. A bit too much 1980's retro.
I nearly bought a Pre last year before Christmas after being bombarded by the O² ads in Germany.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CM-9j3okXgQ
Really good ad - it shows what the Pre does combined with a soundtrack from Phoenix - brilliant. Then I went into an O² shop, saw how horrible the Pre keyboard was and bought a Milestone(Droid). ;)
@Chizzed
"SHE" wasn't creepy; the lighting, makeup, hair and post-production editing made her look creepy.
She's quite beautiful under normal circumstances: http://l.yimg.com/eb/ymv/us/img/hv/photo/movie_pix/miramax_films/shall_we_dance_/tamara_hope/shallpres2.jpg
@NewL Glory glory, hallelujah!
Palm has cut off the weakest link!
@gerrrg
Touche. Hot pic.
@NewL
Hey Palm, you need some Olivia Munn in your ads:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnPgHsVJ5rw
@Beatnik
yeah use this:
http://theaterofmine.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/olivia-munn-feet.jpg
or have 'er lick the Pre that 'll sell
http://actionflickchick.com/superaction/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/olivia-munn-licks-apple-tv.jpg
@RickStar GO FRIKKIN' TEAM!!1!11!
@Beatnik Olivia Munn would never do the commercial she hates the Palm Pre.
@RickStar
Agreed. You are trying to market technology and phones not produce an Indy film or sell pretentious coffee.
@NewL Yeah... Commercials like that obviously DON'T work in the US. If they had added a hamburger and Nascar cars than it would have probably been a huge hit!
@heffeque than > then. Sorry, typo.
@AlfaCat
agreed, 1 yr too late indeed. I'm just patiently waiting on the evo 4g, then i'll rid myself of palm
@gerrrg
I can see where you all think the ads were creepy. Maybe its the NON-geek in me that pushed that aside for imagining having two handfuls of her downy soft blond locks while experiencing the sensation of her pale pink lips wrapped tightly around my...
@PercyPricksworth Just for the record, that song is pretty cool.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rbGj4_qYgI
@gerrrg I agree, Tamara Hope is gorgeous. The commercials weren't creepy, just... ahead of their time, that's all.
about fking time!
@krosref My sentiments exactly.
@krosref
That was the first thing that popped into my head.
In coming years teachers will use the Apple/Palm advertising as an example of the power of advertising. Even though WebOS is arguably a better operating system, Palm's poor advertising just creeped people out and pushed them away. Apple used advertising to show why you needed their product and sold millions. Both companies in the same market with comparable products. One thrives and the other dies. :'(
@sweet greggo
I completely agree. WebOS is an AMAZING operating system for a mobile phone. I have used WebOS, Android, and iPhone, and in my opinion WebOS blows the other two out of the water. Unfortunately, by the time I was due for an upgrade, it was obvious that WebOS was going to get little support from third parties, so I opted for an Android phone.
Two companies that were in dire straights: Motorola and Palm
Motorola had a pretty cool (though mostly male-oriented) ad campaign with the droid.
Palm had a pretty creepy ad campaign that was compounded with the mega-FAIL ads for Verizon.
Outcome: Motorola profits, Palm plunders.
@quasistellar wow word fail. I meant to say plummet instead of plunder. ARR MATEY! Must be the viking in me.
@Cameron Have you ever spent time in a Swedish prison?
@krosref
i disagree, it's way too late for this to even count now. they should have been gone at most, 6 months into the pre launch for this to make a major difference.
@vailmcc
Eeew
@Cameron: 3:13am and the whole house must have heard me bust out in laughter. nice, very nice.
@Cameron
You sir, are good.
Now they need to split with their designers. Their phones aren't very attractive.
@Diondon
They should just have HTC design and/or manufacture the hardware and keep WebOS. They would just dominate as a duo. I mean, who wouldn't want an EVO with WebOS?
@Diondon
Chubby ftw?
@Diondon
IDK about splitting with their designers. There's no doubt about it, the Pre is an absolutely BEAUTIFUL phone. But I want a bigger screen and better built slide mechanisms.
I believe in you Palm. I won't say the road ahead is easy, but if Microsoft can pull their head out of their arse, you can too.
@JW people with taste. people with design knowledge. the pre and pixi have EXCELLENT design and mass feel and concept.
@JW Treo Pro, Xperia 1, and Nexus One.. Id say Htc has a decent track record of making phones for other companies and the Treo Pro looks and feels pretty solid.. Palm would have been better off having a contdst between amateurs and colleges, Palm couldnt gpave survived another round of those ads
@doutorpiranha
I agree. Palm makes some excellent phones, but HTC just makes some pretty damn good hardware.
@Celz
HTC manufactured the Treo Pro? I have one of those and I love it! See! That's what I'm talking about!
The Palm hardware is fine, they just need a better keyboard.
Put WebOS on the Treo 700wx, Treo 800, Treo Pro or even the Tungsten C! I can't stand the cut-the-cheese slider of the Pre. It was all downhill since the Centro.
They should have done this ages ago!
Finally, go away creepy woman and get some damn sun with your parting royalties
Palm needs to call Donald Draper!! Now!!
@toptekjon
Finally! I can't believe it took six comments on a post about ads before we got to a Mad Men reference!
@toptekjon If Palm has a high level exec chick that ol' Don can call then I foresee good things.
@Henzapper from madmen i would call christina hendricks first.
dunno why... must be my peculiar taste...
@doutorpiranha
knockers...that is all..
Palm who? Can I get that app on my ipad? lol
@garyamorris
whats an ipad??