These two ads round out Modernista!'s "Go with the Flow" campaign for Palm Pre. I reviewed the debut spot on Adrants. In it, actress Tamara Hope sits on a rock, manipulating the features on her phone while an armada of monks respond in unison to her every toggle.
I wasn't keen on this spot, but I was willing to roll with it. Problem is, things worsened thereafter. In the ads above, the actress feels less and less like a person; more and more like ... I don't know, an android? A minion for the Oasis Project?
Shit really hits the fan with the juggling spot, where it doesn't even vibe like she's trying to be relatable anymore. Hope's as scary as possible, short of her head spinning 360 degrees. As a result, would-be Palm Pre users are reacting in reciprocally psychotic ways.
I heard about the slow progression of Palm Pre's campaign into the weeds from three sources, each of which seemed shaken as hell. When you're living abroad and divided from your dearest by a nine-hour time difference, that's a lot of people reaching out just to freak about an ad.
Why the strong sentiments? It's not just that the work seems Zoloft-enhanced; it's also because:
a) A perfectly good phone, one we were excited about (because look how cool!), is being ruined.
b) Sprint already had a good campaign that everybody liked, Sprint Now, featuring the Palm Pre. Nobody understands why Palm didn't just ride that wave. The work was relevant and witty, investing Palm Pre with a crisp persona without inviting comparisons to Apple's iPhone.
Check out the difference:
Modernista! and Palm, are you paying attention? Change tack before this coffin's sealed shut.
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