cliches
Latest
Did Motorola's agency 'borrow' Super Bowl ad concept?
Motorola is in hot water over its Apple-inspired Super Bowl advertisement for its upcoming XOOM tablet. The video ad features a world of drones dressed in white hoodies who are eternally plugged into white earbuds. Of course, the one character breaking the trend is the one with a Motorola XOOM tablet who is able to free both himself and a female friend from this mindless, solitary existence. This idea of disconnecting from a connected world is a theme that dominates a popular Indie film produced by Mike Sarrow. The filmmmaker asserts his Do Not Disconnect film has been submitted to several Indie film festivals and the plot and concept of his production has been known for several years. In an interview with Cnet, he says, "We're really disappointed that Motorola and the Anomaly New York ad agency have made their Super Bowl ad 'Empower the People' with an identical concept." Sarrow is not seeking attribution from Motorola, just recognition from the public regarding the true roots of this concept. The videos, including Apple's classic 1984 ad, are available after the break for you to view and compare. Has Motorola borrowed from Sarrow's film or is Apple the inspiration for this ad? [Via Electronista]
Motorola Xoom ad 'inspired' by Apple's classic 1984 ad
Motorola has just released a commercial for its Xoom tablet that seems to draw heavy inspiration from Apple's classic 1984 ad. In Motorola's spot, a single Xoom user roams through a sterile environment populated with hundreds of people clothed in the same monochrome, drab garments. Everyone except the Xoom user trudges along placidly with blank expressions and white earbuds dangling from their ears. Upon seeing a Xoom in action ("all screen images simulated" of course), a woman's expression brightens, and she removes her earbuds. Oh, ha ha, Motorola. Ten out of ten for style, but minus several million for good thinking. Henry Blodget puts it in perspective. Just like most of the other "me-too" tablets that have come out over the past couple months, the Motorola Xoom pretty clearly drew design inspiration from the iPad, so it's not particularly surprising that the company's commercial is also drawing "inspiration" from Apple's iconic 1984 ad. The real question here is whether anyone will care. The Motorola Xoom is US$799 for a 3G-enabled tablet with 32 GB of storage, only $30 less than an iPad with twice as much storage and access to far more applications than are currently available on the Android platform. As Engadget noted with a Best Buy ad leak earlier tonight and some of our commenters have reiterated, you can't even enable Wi-Fi on the Xoom without chipping in for at least a month of 3G service. Even so, I'm sure the Android Army will be happy to tell me why the Xoom is inherently "better" than the iPad. Here's the thing, though: just like all the other tablets out there, the Xoom is competing against last year's iPad, and it's competing based on specs rather than user experience. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that not a whole lot of people are going to be ditching their white hoodies and iPads for a snazzy sweater vest and a Xoom. Check out the video below, then hurry to your nearest Best Buy to get in front of what I'm sure will be insanely long lines* for Motorola's device. [via Engadget] *lines may not actually be insanely long
7 anti-Apple cliches that need to die
PC vs. Mac flamewars are older than the web itself, but it seems like the more popular/successful Apple gets, the more heated the argument gets on both sides. Almost any debate about the relative merits of one platform or another is guaranteed to degenerate into an all-out shouting match. In the midst of all the fighting and name calling, the oddest thing happens: almost every time, you'll see a lot of the same points being raised by both sides again and again. Some of these points are so tired and worn out, they've reached cliche status. In online debates, there's an informal rule known as Godwin's Law, whereby if you invoke references or comparisons to Nazis or Hitler, you've automatically lost the debate. I say the items on this list have become so worn out they've reached automatic rhetorical failure status on their own. I know that every time I see one of these points appear, I immediately stop any serious consideration of any other arguments from the person who brought it up. I'm focusing on Apple haters and their cliches for this article, but don't get the idea that Apple users aren't just as guilty of cliche-ridden arguments when they argue against using Windows. If, for example, you're an Apple user and you do any of these things: -- Cite the Blue Screen of Death (or BSOD, as he's known to his closest friends) as a point against Windows -- Insert a dollar sign into Microsoft's name (Micro$oft, M$) -- Use "clever" alternate spellings of Windows (Windoze and other less family-friendly revisions) -- Call Internet Explorer "Internet Exploder" you're employing a heavily-cliched, Godwin-esque talking point, too. Read on for the seven deadly cliches of anti-Mac attacks.
Breakfast Topic: What Tropes does your character embody?
Ok, I'm going to make sort of a pretty geeky confession here: I have been known to read TV Tropes. In fact, I have been known to waste hours that could have been better spent writing (or raiding) reading TV Tropes. For those of you who do not know what TV Tropes is, I'll explain in short: it's a wiki in which the contributors look for common themes and cliches present in modern pop culture and fiction, document them, and categorize them. Of course, rather than give the Tropes simple names, part of the fun seems to be giving your tropes fanciful and offbeat names. Big Lipped Alligator Moment, anyone? How about Contemplate our Navels?
