19 November 2009
No Love For BlackBerry
Anyone else find it bizarre that the theme for the ad campaign for BlackBerry is "love"? Of the hundreds of people I've known and worked with who've had to use the things, none of them loved it. At best they thought whatever new version they had was pretty good for what it's supposed to do, which is extending office automation apps off the desktop and onto your person, especially so you can keep up with work email. Interestingly, a few years ago a survey at my workplace at the time found that making remoting in to work (via a home PC) easier was broadly seen to be an improvement to "work-life balance", whereas blackberries were broadly seen as a detriment to that balance. A more realistic ad campaign would be the guy who comes in to work in the morning to face the usual 314 unread emails in his inbox, vs. the smug blackberry owner who has no unread email because he's compulsively tended to them round the clock.
I have not yet seen the "love" campaign here (Comedy Central, NBC, MSNBC don't have it running that I have seen) but I agree, it is a weird premise.
ReplyDeleteTraci has gotten a blackberry with her new job, and it is useful, but "love it" ... no. Delusional executives, living in one of Plato's caves, without lives approved that ad campaign.
The love campaign baffles me, mostly because it seems to be targeting young hipsters -- exactly the folks who're already in Apple's (or Google's) pocket. Or who have Apple or Google (Android) products in theirs. Blackberrys are about as un-hip as a product in the category can be. (Well, I guess maybe a Windows Mobile device would be even less cool, but does anyone think that Microsoft is even a player in that space anymore?)
ReplyDeleteBonus fact: my word verification word is "winger".
Yeah, I've never seen anyone with a blackberry who wasn't obviously an unhip office worker. Maybe we've got this all wrong. Maybe the folks who came up with the ad are gloating and taunting the poor schmucks who have to use BlackBerrys. "Love what you do". Ha! That'll really stick in their craw.
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