X

Lady Gaga tapped to give Chrome browser an edge

Google's new commercial features the pop star using the browser to add to her huge fan base and communicate with her "Little Monsters."

Don Reisinger
CNET contributor Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has covered everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Besides his work with CNET, Don's work has been featured in a variety of other publications including PC World and a host of Ziff-Davis publications.
Don Reisinger
2 min read
Lady Gaga is in a new Google Chrome ad.
Lady Gaga is in a new Google Chrome ad. Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET

Google is turning to one of the world's biggest pop stars to promote its Chrome browser.

The search giant released late last week an ad that features Lady Gaga using Chrome to communicate with her "Little Monsters." The ad also includes short snippets of fans using Google's other services, including search and YouTube. Its search is employed to find "Gaga fans," while those fans are shown singing the artist's "Edge of Glory" track in videos posted to YouTube.

The ad ends with Google calling Lady Gaga "Mother Monster" and stating "the Web is what you make of it."

Lady Gaga is no slouch when it comes to the Web. The artist's music videos have been viewed hundreds of millions of times on YouTube. Lady Gaga also recently became the first person on Twitter to reach 10 million followers. She currently has more than 10.3 million. Today, her wildly anticipated "Born This Way" album hits store shelves.

The reaction to Google's use of Lady Gaga to promote its browser and other services should be interesting. Google is by no means the first tech giant to rely on star power to promote products. Many companies have used celebrities in their ads--with varying degrees of success.

One example of celebrity promotion gone wrong: Microsoft's use of comedian Jerry Seinfeld with Bill Gates. Not long after the duo's ads aired in 2008, their work was shelved.

Lady Gaga's ad may not gain the same level of exposure as those Microsoft spots. However, it has done somewhat well so far on YouTube. As of this writing, it has been viewed over 532,000 times. It has 11,800 "likes" and 275 "dislikes."