LG sells its G5 phone with a lot of Jason Stathams and a little exaggeration
Technically Incorrect: A new ad for LG's modular G5 phone makes you believe that its parts are quickly interchangeable. They're not.
Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.
A Statham on intent, rather than fact?
I'm not sure I want my phone to have lots of additional bits.
LG isn't sure I know what I want.
So it's released the G5, a so-called modular phone that has attachments you can insert -- such as a camera grip, an interchangeable battery and a high-res audio pack.
To get you excited about this, it's created the ultimate action movie ad, in which there's not just one Jason Statham, but at least 200.
The mere idea of a whole world of Jason Stathams might fill some with queasiness. So might this ad, as it rushes through scenarios in which the G5's bits are featured.
Here's Statham on the subway. There's Statham in drag. And there's Statham robbing a bank.
It's all frightfully exciting.
What's slightly less exciting is that he appears to insert each of the different modules with ease and then use the phone straight away.
This isn't quite how the G5 works. In fact, every time you insert a module, you have to wait for the phone to start up again.
Indeed, my colleague Lynn La described the modular design in her review as "not fully realized."
This ad, then, is a Statham of intent, rather than a Statham of actual fact.
Indeed, in the subway scene, a Statham quickly inserts the battery module and starts to use the phone. A tiny caption beneath says: "Dramatization: a battery change requires the phone to be turned on manually."
Still, you like Jason Statham, so you'll be mesmerized by his standing on top of Pamplona's raging, rampaging bulls while holding a fire extinguisher.
Will it make you buy the phone, though?