Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Nexus almost gives us a good commercial. Almost.



This commercial for Google Nexus 7 Whatever isn't horrible- in fact, compared to most of the hideous dreck out there, it's almost good.  Father* playing with son in the woods- ok, that's sweet, not bad.  I especially like where they catch a frog and then look it up on the internet- maybe the first-ever use of a cell phone in an ad that I can actually understand and approve of.  Good for you, Dad- taking advantage of a learning moment.  I would have just taken a photo and saved the research for later, but that's me- no big problem with your decision to do it right away, you've got that phone glued to your hand anyway.

 Just a few questions-

1.  Why does Dad feel the need to play Jurassic Park (or Walking with Dinosaurs, whatever that is) on his phone while his son is looking at actual wildlife?  The way he shrugs when Son notices him- is he admitting that hey, I'm bored with spending time with you, kid, and thought I'd just watch a movie?  Is Dad playing a little joke on his son- like "I'm going to hold this up and my kid will have exactly the right magnification and catch the phone screen at just the right angle so he'll think that there are actually dinosaurs in the backyard- and then he'll realize there aren't and he'll either think I'm funny or just a dick?"  Or is he quietly admitting that "hey, frogs are nice and all but CGI dinosaurs are much better- actually, the creatures we can observe and catch out here are pretty damned lame compared to these CGI dinosaurs, aren't they son?"

2.  Turns out these guys are in the backyard- so why didn't dad run in to get his son a bandage when he picked up the bruise?  Was he afraid that this might throw off the whole "great outdoors" experience?  Umm....I really think that the constant use of your little electronic toy is doing that already, Dad....

3.  This father and son are out under the stars, with a campfire- and they still need to watch cartoons and play electronic checkers?  Really?  How about just talking to each other?  Is this so damned hard?

*After a few viewings, it began to occur to me that this commercial actually has "Mom's boyfriend trying to bond with her son" spewed all over it.  There sure isn't a whole lot of natural warmth here.


No comments:

Post a Comment