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My Pre Knows I'm Crazy? Really?

About the newest Pre ad.

Catherine Gouge
2 min read
I have to say, owning a Pre has definitely not been boring over the past month.

I have blogged about how the frequent WebOS updates, proliferation of homebrew apps, and general spirit of communal play and discovery over at Pre Central have kept things fun, but there's something else that has started to take shape that is almost more compelling than all of that put together.

Have you seen the latest Pre TV advertisement from Palm?

Early on, the look and feel of Palm's Pre ads seemed to be playing on the natural, organic inspiration for the Pre's hardware and for WebOS. But the ads seem to have taken an odd turn in the last few weeks.

Much has been said about the "creepy" lady who keeps showing up in the ads, but the most recent ad seems to be taking things to a whole new level by casting said woman in a narrative turn towards, well, crazy.

Check it out:

The Sprint Pre ads, on the other hand, have all had a bit of an edge to them (replete with hard core facebooking yutes and black-on-white visual impact), so clearly we have two somewhat competing narratives at work in the two sets of ads.

I'm fairly certain viewers who listen to what this lady is saying in Palm's latest commercial will remember the ad, so maybe that's a win for their marketing team right there. But I'm not sure I get where this is going.

Are we supposed to want a Pre, according to the frame of the Palm commercials, because it is not only natural, organic but because it is smart enough to know we are crazy, flexible enough to compensate for our being "out there," and generous enough not to care?

Hmmm.

In related news, here's an analysis of trends and demographics for Palm's online advertising if you're interested.