Let's face it — Apple's "Hello" commercial managed to add the word "iPhone" to everyone’s vernacular, even your grandma’s. How did they pull it off? By showing jump cuts of Tinseltown's finest answering phones, Apple was able to pique the interests of a huge amount of moviegoers in just 30 seconds. The message was clear: With the right device even everyday consumers can look glamorous while answering a phone.
Remember Sony's nightmarish white room commercials for the PS3? Luckily those bizarro ads were replaced with something gamers could sink their teeth into: A pulse-pounding view of the PS3's lineup set to Saliva's thumping "Ladies and Gentlemen." Highlights include savvy nods to the system's Blu-ray capabilities and price drop, but honestly — they had us with the chaingun.
This Shia LeBeouf vehicle was a treasure trove of gadget shoutouts. While LeBeouf's character is stuck under house arrest we see him using his Xbox 360, iPod, and PSP — and this when he wasn't watching his Philips TV, using a Nokia phone or tinkering with his MacBook. If you made a drinking game out gadget sightings in this movie, an ambulance ride is guaranteed.
Ben Curtis used to be the most interesting part of Dell's marketing — but drug enforcement laws put an end to that. However, Dell's recipe for spicing up its m1330 notebook ads was foolproof: Pouty New Wave models brought the sex appeal, and Devo's infectious "Watch Us Work It" amped up the hype factor.
… on acid.
Ads for GPS units are some of the worst. So we had to give props to Garmin for incorporating both an Ultraman parody and a Steve Grimmett rock anthem for its commercials. Long story short, Garmin Man throws Map-o-saurus into a power plant and zaps the corpse with what looks like blue urine. What better metaphor is there for using a gadget to find your way?
We're all for gadget porn, but the ad for Philips' Norelco Moisturizing shaving system is pure robosexuality. What begins as a typical electric razor/lotion commercial turns into an implied tryst between a female android and her owner … in the shower. Oh, and at some point there's some shaving involved.
It's no secret that Microsoft wants a piece of Apple's street cred. In using The Shins' "Sleeping Lesson" for its Zune 2 commercial, it may have finally succeeded. Not only does the imaginative ad win hipster points, but having the lead actor encounter "a thousand different versions of himself" is a great thematic nod to the Zune 2's central theme — customization.
This low-tech spy extravaganza is chock full of Nokia's N93 and Motorola's RAZR. Over the course of the non-stop chases, good guys carry them, bad guys carry them and everyone in between manages to swap them at some point. Unfortunately, since we spent most of the movie counting phones, we missed out on most of the plot. Wait, why is the IRS chasing Will Hunting again?
