Get Out And Play
This new Nokia N-Gage viral is sizzling through the interw3b. The general idea is at least 50 years old, but Swedish director Hobby and agency Farfar have taken it to new heights—quite literally in the case of the levitating cheerleader.
If you look a little beyond the surface, the ad is rife with contradictions. The plea to “get out and play” is actually an invitation to use your mobile gaming device while in a location other than your home or office. The viral drives its viewers to the Get Out and Play website, which features the advert in various social-network-friendly formats—the distribution of which would require spending more time on your computer and more time indoors.
While the messaging seems conflicted, however, it’s all perfectly orchestrated under the auspices of branding. This “short film” is aimed with laser precision at the N-Gage demographic, which just so happens to overlap nicely with sites like Motionographer, whose readers, by and large, will find this video worthy of a couple minutes of their time. The actual content of the video, i.e. people playing a game of Snake in the sunshine, is largely irrelevant. It’s the mode of presentation—an over-the-top application of nostalgic 8-bit music and stop-motion silliness—that work in Nokia’s favor.
Although it may sound like it, I’m not being cynical. I like advertising. It shows us just how susceptible we humans are to story and novelty. It’s a reminder of our ancient tendencies to visually communicate in order to persuade the rest of the tribe. “Come, look at my paintings in the cave. See these buffalo? They’re just beyond the mountains in the east. They are the biggest, juiciest buffalo you have ever seen…”
Thanks to Shannon for the tip on both the Nokia advert and the Norman McLaren film!
Monday, April 21st 2008 at 12:49 pm |
how do they do the “jump” over the pool?
Monday, April 21st 2008 at 5:12 pm |
freebertbrown, at 0:21 (as the man in the white shirt lands on his feet), you can see the remnants of a plank at the edge of the pool.
Actually, it’s a bit disappointing that with such detail one HAS to pay in the production of a stop-motion piece that they didn’t pay as much attention to the post-production.
Tuesday, April 22nd 2008 at 1:58 am |
It reminds me of my sesame street days… Loved the cheerleader floating above everyone’s heads…
Tuesday, April 22nd 2008 at 5:39 am |
It’s very different, but it reminded me of a no-budget music video for the now defunct Bolt Action Five http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfAKM0Wj_PA
Tuesday, April 22nd 2008 at 11:53 am |
Honestly, if you replaced the track on this with “Yakety Sax” you’d have the perfect Benny Hill credit bed.
Tuesday, April 22nd 2008 at 12:11 pm |
Granted, it’s hard to do anything truly original in advertising, but the way the video begins is a little too similar to the youtube video “homemaderobot” pointed to… then again, who knows if someone more obscure executed the same concept prior to the “Bolt Action Five” video? Viscous cycle.
Tuesday, April 22nd 2008 at 3:04 pm |
“Honestly, if you replaced the track on this with “Yakety Sax” you’d have the perfect Benny Hill credit bed.”
haha… best comment in a long time.
Wednesday, April 23rd 2008 at 12:51 am |
nice catch shbk.
Wednesday, April 23rd 2008 at 8:24 am |
remember pace of life (2005) ? but that was playstation (!).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WK6Ww9D1M_A
Wednesday, April 23rd 2008 at 11:53 pm |
id rather have a juicy buffalo that a nokia ngage anyday
this whole piece isn’t stop motion its actually all done in maya with massive,thats much more efficient that actually getting people to listen to directions.