Controversial Palm Pre ads judged to be effective, still creepy
By Tim Stevens 
posted Aug 11th 2009 9:22AM
posted Aug 11th 2009 9:22AM
Palm's slightly disturbing Pre ads continue to make news, putting to rest any doubts about their effectiveness. Hot on the heels of ad agency Modernista totally loving that you're "creeped out" by them, analyst MediaCurves has done a little online study --"little" meaning a small sample group of only 305 viewers. Still, the results are interesting, with half of all respondents feeling inspired or happy after viewing the commercial, nine percent feeling disturbed. Sixteen percent were, however, confused, but that didn't stop 21 percent from saying the commercial was "extremely effective," and 46 percent indicating "somewhat effective." At the read link you can watch the ad with a line graph drawn over it rating peoples' interest realtime, generally going up when the phone is shown (the "bing, bing, bing" segment) and down the rest of the time, perhaps inspiring a new series of Pre adverts with more time for demos and less for dazed-sounding, tight-haired, 60-foot-tall women.
[Via everythingpre]
A couple observations:
1. The results indicate the ads are "effective" relative to... what? How would an iphone or similar competitor's commercial fare using the same system?
2. Money talks and BS walks. Aren't sales a good indicator of ad "effectiveness".
A cool ad doesn't make up for the fact that the build quality has given rise to a new descriptor: The "oreo effect". I like the ads, and like the Pre, but don't want to buy a flimsy POS of a phone.
Reminds me of the Borg Queen:
http://thecsr.blogspot.com/2009/08/did-you-ever-have-one-of-those-days.html
I guess if you watch the entire ad, it could be somewhat effective at showing off an aspect of the Pre, but whenever I see this ad, if I'm not fast-forwarding already, I will be before its over.
In that sense, its pretty ineffective, because it makes me skip their commercials altogether.
I'd say the Verizon "lollipop" commercials are worse. I literally just heard it twice in the past 3 minutes and I don't feel happy.
It's actually a Dell commercial with a VZW plug.
Just sat down and watched all of these ads for the first time (I'm from Canada so we don't get Pre commercials... yet.)
Probably some of the worst advertising I've ever seen. This doesn't make me want to buy a Palm Pre. And also, I don't see how a woman talking about another woman juggling balls is relevant to mobile technology.
Because it reminded her of her phone which can juggle multiple apps.
i like the palm pre now network commercials better
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HZLwKDSXqs
Agreed.
I don't think the "creepy" ads are as bad as most people seems to think, but I definitely like the style and content of the Now Network ads more.
Whenever it was that this ad started running in my area, I had to look away from the TV or change the channel. If "creepy" is the buzz word Palm Pre wants associated with their device, they have succeeded beyond their wildest nightmares. I only found out the name of the product so I could tell somebody how much I hate these commercials, and that I wouldn't accept even a free Pre from the manufacturer. I want to like the companies I buy products from, but this company has literally scared me away. Somebody could make a horror flick about the woman in this ad coming to people's homes and invading their lives with her expressionless face, monotonous voice and lack of affect...man, I would never stop screaming.