Are the Droid commercials offensive?

[aaf709]

The first time I saw that commercial was just now on the link. Eh, I like the other commercials more. I don't think I'd buy a Droid just based on this commercial.

 

[cereal killer]

The aesthetics of their ads are horrible, the name is bad (imo) and personally the phone itself could even be more stylish. This whole robot, droid, red eye thing is strange, it turns me off and I imagine a lot of other people. I don't know if it's too sci-fi or what but it seems to me that they are marketing the phone to a specific group of people. A group which I do not belong to, a group which I don't interact with, I'm not sure who this group is actually. I don't know anyone that has responded positively to their ads.

I respectfully have to disagree. The numbers are nearing the 1,000,000 mark so it's safe to say a "few" have responded positivity to the ad campaign.

Mostly males 18 +

 

[JayMonster]

What I saw (figured... what the hell)...

The Droid is for people that want serious power. Those "other phones" are for Paris Hilton types.

There is not an ad out there that can't be taken as offensive by somebody, just as there is not a single phone out there (despite what some Apple Fanboys may wish to think) that is perfect for everybody.

For ever woman out there that finds this offensive, there are equal amounts of women that find it offensive when companies "cater" to them (usually by changing a product pink and declaring it "for women" But who knows, maybe somewhere down the road we will see a pink phone in the Droid line (though my guess will it will be closer to the Eris than the Droid).

 

[BzB]

excellent ad. accomplished exactly what they were trying to do.

the iphone isn't perfect, but it is a good device. they weren't off base with taking shots at it for being a glamor style device and the related associations. that's not all it is, but as the saying goes...a hit dog barks the loudest.

 

[silverx10]

I think it's a commercial.

Nothing more.

People in this country need to stop being so butt-hurt about these things, I think.

 

[Colin]

The aesthetics of their ads are horrible, the name is bad (imo) and personally the phone itself could even be more stylish. This whole robot, droid, red eye thing is strange, it turns me off and I imagine a lot of other people. I don't know if it's too sci-fi or what but it seems to me that they are marketing the phone to a specific group of people. A group which I do not belong to, a group which I don't interact with, I'm not sure who this group is actually. I don't know anyone that has responded positively to their ads.

I respectfully have to disagree. The numbers are nearing the 1,000,000 mark so it's safe to say a "few" have responded positivity to the ad campaign.

Mostly males 18 +

I meant no one I know personally responded positively to them. And in my case, I responded negatively to the commercials, I hate them. But I still bought a Droid. The commercials didn't make me buy it, the commercials didn't make me interested in it, and didn't even perk my interest enough to google what the hell a "Droid" was but in the end they also weren't enough to deter me from making the purchase. Although I'm still a little worried I'll be kicking myself if an awesome HTC comes out within the next 6 months. I'm even thinking I'll go pay Verizon more in order to downgrade my contract to a 1yr so that I can get another contract upgrade (and thus phone) in 12 months instead of 24.

I found out that the Droid was a top of the line phone by searching places like Howard Forums since I was now already shoping for phones and wanted to move to a smartphone. I was convinced to buy it after doing a lot of research on the specs and performance. A very "cold" way to buy a product. Had their ad campaigns been better tailored to someone like me they could have created buzz in peer groups I am a part of, perked our interest... Made me start researching the Droid because I wanted that specific phone, not because I simply needed a phone and was hoping to upgrade to a smart phone. When the ads create an emotion of want and need and you combine that with stellar specs you have a win win.

I just think there's a very large segment of the population that would be interested in this phone had the advertising been done differently. And I think there are a lot of people (like me) who purchased it based purely on specs and had no positive reinforcement from the commercials. There is a large group of us who have been waiting for a decent VZW phone and probably would have bought the Droid even w/o any specific targeted marketing.

(not trying to argue, just sharing my viewpoint and what I'm seeing within my peers)

 

[cereal killer]

The aesthetics of their ads are horrible, the name is bad (imo) and personally the phone itself could even be more stylish. This whole robot, droid, red eye thing is strange, it turns me off and I imagine a lot of other people. I don't know if it's too sci-fi or what but it seems to me that they are marketing the phone to a specific group of people. A group which I do not belong to, a group which I don't interact with, I'm not sure who this group is actually. I don't know anyone that has responded positively to their ads.

I respectfully have to disagree. The numbers are nearing the 1,000,000 mark so it's safe to say a "few" have responded positivity to the ad campaign.

Mostly males 18 +

(not trying to argue, just sharing my viewpoint and what I'm seeing within my peers)

Colin you are not being argumentative at all so none taken.

You write some interesting things and it's piqued my interest.. You keep mentioning your peer group. What peer group do you consider yourself to belong to?

 

[Colin]

I have many different circles of friends, from the hipster la/nyc types, to action sports (skating, snowboarding...) people, to gearheads (tuning and racing cars, bicycles, motocycles...). I personally am some combo of all of that, hard to put myself into one group.

I only mentioned my peer groups in my above posts simply because I feel my generalizations and view on the situation is because of who I'm surrounded by. There clearly is a target audience for these ads, I simply am unsure of who that group is. Cause it's not me, and not anyone I know. Possibly some of my co-workers or friends of friends but it's hard to tell. In my eyes these ads fit in line with something I'd expect to be marketed to gamers - but I could be way off base there.

I'm male, 27, college educated, employed, single, with disposable income and chooses quality over quantity in my purchases. I have many hobbies and have a busy lifestyle. I'm the person who tries to keep up with technology but can't program or write code, tech savvy but not an expert. I'm the person who switched from PC to Mac and never looked back (although I run OS X and Windows 7 on my Mac).

 

[cereal killer]

to action sports (skating, snowboarding...) people, to gearheads (tuning and racing cars, bicycles, motocycles...).

There clearly is a target audience for these ads, I simply am unsure of who that group is. Cause it's not me, and not anyone I know. Possibly some of my co-workers or friends of friends but it's hard to tell. In my eyes these ads fit in line with something I'd expect to be marketed to gamers - but I could be way off base there.

.

definitely marketed to this group. The commercials are raw. Guys getting knocked out, gears, grease, sparks, explosions, v.o actor, steel, stealth bombers etc etc...

It appealed to me because I myself have a VERY action orientated mindset. Sports, cars, speed, jet fighters, UFC so on and so forth.

Like I posted before the phone did extremely well with Males 18 +....key thing is male. The ads are no doubt geared towards males and you fall into that category : )

Interesting we are having this discussion because I posted an article on this very thing yesterday. check out the link

http://www.droidforums.net/forum/dr...-brand-loyalty-among-men-18-passes-apple.html

 

[RedRocker]

Good Grief, the United States of the offended.

 

[KCW]

That poor horse and banana... your right it is offensive. If I were a horse I would be extremely upset!

 

[Milehighjc]

Very interesting Colin - I would have thought you fit the demographic they were trying to reach, and if you are who they were trying to reach, then sounds like it was a clean miss!

I also was unaffected by the ads, as well as being unaffected by the article referenced in this thread (or for that matter by any of the gnashing of teeth on the internet about the Droid vs the iPhone).

I first saw it in the Verizon store when I took my daughter to get her new phone. Thought it was interesting (I think this was actually BEFORE the ad blitz started). Researched the daylights out of it, and read a BUNCH here about how to do things. I think I went in with my eyes open about what was good, and what some of the challenges were.

I dont think I fit the target demographic of the commercials, or for that matter, Im not sure I fit the demographic for the phone either... just have enough geek/early adopter in me to make the droid seem fun as well as functional to me.

Had the iPhone been offered on a different network, I might well have been carrying an iPhone a year ago. I think Apple did a lot right with it... so much so that I hold a little stock in AAPL, and very happy how well it has done.

jc

 

[Takami826]

I'm a woman and haven't found any of the verizon droid commercials offensive at all... I think they're fun to hilarious

 

[austinnadz]

Stereotypes propel our society.

I'll chime in here and give my demographics to make myself clear:

I'm a 25 year old moderate male who was in the Marine Corps for 4 years and now am attending college in Virginia, am in a fraternity, studying engineering, and who has been living with his girlfriend for 3 years. LOL, did I miss any target group other than the female population?

I think this commercial is blatantly sexist and stereotypical, and that is what makes it awesome. The demographic for this commercial wasn't aimed at a woman who writes for the Wall Street Journal digital community, so while she can comment, her argument isn't quite valid or relevant, more like a rant from a humanitarian news anchor on a sports issue. The iPhone (which I believe everyone would agree that this commercial has been targeted at) has been previously dinged by Verizon as being the "iCan't." Enter droid which has been given the stigma that where the iPhone can't be built upon the Droid can. The average user of the iPhone isn't going to be able to build upon their limited 8gb internal memory, like a princess, they typically aren't out there building computers, playing with table saws, throwing paint balls for fun and dreaming about scud missiles. If you don't think most men haven't dreamed about something along these lines then you are wrong, and you have totally missed the majority of the male population. That's the beauty of the commercial, it plays on the male sterotypes which have propelled our societies since the beginning of time (and like it or not still do across the majority of the country and world). The stereotypical man likes to build stuff with wood, they like to design the bud light cooler that doubles as a grill and they like to fix things that are not broken, hence our propensity on forums like these to root our phones, overclock our computers and not read the instruction manual.

That being said, I think we can all agree that the average users of both the iPhone and the Droid are not on boards, forums, and other useful tools such as these to get the most out of their devices and push them to the limits. The Droid is a lot of phone and not for the average user. For alot of people a phone that can simultaneously download email through wifi while talk on the phone through a blue tooth device and play a game like quake is slightly more than they would need. But the ability to do that is where the male stereotype falls in, the masculine need to get down and dirty and mess with the phone comes into play and the commercial succeeds, behemothly.

Oh I forgot to add that I eat meat and I like it. Go America.

[EDIT] For the record I started composing this post at 2pm, got delayed and edited a couple of times so it would sound better written.

 

[windstrings]

Could it be just sheer Jealousy?

The I-phone has enjoyed being the big dog in town thats known as having the most innovative and creative apps and hardware for quite a while now.


The Droid commercial implies that something totally "out of this world" has arrived that cannot compare with the likes of devices of mere men.

Sorry.. but theres a new Sheriff in Town! and it has a better network too!... LOL!

Eat your heart out, AT&T.... thats what you get for draggin your feet for a whole year stricking a deal with Verizon to run the Omnia II.

Sorry, but I have no love loss for AT&T... every dealing I've ever had with them has been a disorganized cut-throat experience... Good thing for Apple their contract is expiring.