Usually I’m not a big fan of the commercials that come on while I’m trying to watch football on Sunday afternoon. I am even less of a fan when the commercial makes me do something to get more information instead of telling me up front. Last Sunday I made an exception for one such commercial. The commercial in question was from Verizon Wireless (although not readily apparent from first watch).
At first glance of the commercial I thought “Oh boy! Here is a new Apple commercial! Listen to that catchy music in the background! I’ll have to run to iTunes immediately after this and purchase it for my iPod Touch!” Well, not really. Sorry for the huge dose of sarcasm, it’s just that I’m not that into Apple’s commercials. I love their products, but the way their commercials come off, just leaves me a bit annoyed.
Anyways, I was about to change the channel when I noticed that all of the messages flashing on my TV were negative. “iDon’t have a real keyboard. iDon’t run simultaneous apps.” the commercial stated. Knowing that Apple doesn’t really go this route for its commercials I decided to watch on. The commercial stated all of the things that the almighty iPhone did not include or run natively. I was intrigued even more. A company had the guts to not only mock Steve Jobs and his Apple cohorts, but also shove in their face all the things the iPhone didn’t include? I needed to know more.
After the statements had run their course, the screen appeared to be taken over by elite hackers with a dark and sinister message being displayed; “Droid Does”. The word “November” and “droiddoes.com” appeared next and the commercial was finished. I was left wondering. “What is this Droid?” “What does it do?” Dying to know more I immediately went to the droiddoes.com website. I was met with a reiteration of the commercial I saw and then a dark page with a modern metal background. There was a countdown (unrecognizable to me because I can’t read alien glyphs) and an opportunity to sign up to know more about the mysterious “Droid”. I had by now realized, with the help of the Verizon logo at the bottom, that the commercial I watched was for a new phone Verizon was coming out with in the near future.
The race was on to see how much information I could get on this new phone. I have said all along, even since the iPhone came out, that if Verizon somehow got the iPhone under its banner that I would switch instantly. With that being said I was on a mission to see if Verizon had finally brought a phone to its roster that could rival the beloved iPhone.
http://www.boygeniusreport.com
A quick Google search brought up pictures of a sleek phone with full QWERTY keyboard and what looked to be a small track pad. And then I realized something. I had just spent the last 15 minutes researching a phone I had just heard of from a commercial with little to no information. The terrorists had won. I’d been duped by a teaser advertisement. Usually I see these teaser ads and just look the other way. This one was different. I’m not sure if it was the way Verizon twisted the commercial Apple regularly runs or if it was the commercial’s dark and sinister tone, but it worked. Good job Verizon, you got me. Not only did I go to the website you setup for your new phone, but I also spent a good amount of time researching what the phone was all about and making me want one so badly.
Has this ever happened to you? Do you normally follow up with a commercial like this by going to the website listed? Do you think this new Droid phone by Verizon will challenge Apple’s iPhone for overall phone supremacy? Let me know what you think in the comments below.
