advertising technology: peruse the product or wax poetic

07 Jul, 2009 • posts i've written • 4 comments

Sure, sure, “advertising is a tax you pay for unremarkable thinking.” But with a recent surge in personal TV viewing, I’ve been mulling over how we advertise technology.

Consider this new Palm Pre ad, “Flow”

Pretty weighty stuff, eh? Your phone is your connection to the spiritual world (monks!). It reminded me of a new ad for Scientology I caught while watching CNN…

Now compare that ad to one of the traditional ads by Apple for the iPhone…

Apple’s ads are far more akin to the early days of cellphone ads…

What all of this got me thinking about is the choice between marketing the product and its features vs its place in the world and its meaning to culture at large. It seems for technology, everyone chooses one of these two roads. We either show off the product or wax poetic about the world at large. One involves presenting context and situations, the other involves lots of copy that starts with “It’s about.. it’s about.. it’s about….. the new _______.”

Which do you think is the strongest sell, or when should either be chosen?