The iPhone is girly--Verizon says

[barkomatic]

A brand new ad by Verizon portrays the iPhone and its users as effeminate and empty headed. I think its ridiculous.

http://brainstormtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2009/12/04/ad-wars-droid-manly-iphone-girly/

 

[nfl46]

What a DUMB move by Verizon. Their ads causes too much drama...thats GIRLY to me.

I hope they don't think that ALL Droid customers are males.

 

[svndmvn]

I think the message is different, not girly but a princess, the iPhone is a princess.. you don't like pricesses?
...and the Droid is a rocket, pretty much

 

[lemonade-maker]

Can't tell you how many conversations have been started by women with iPhones and me. Never happened in the many years I was with verizon. Verizon are knuckle-draggers.

 

[JUSTQUAN]

i gotta admit i laughed really hard here at work reading that one lol! thats mad funny cause i work with a 5 big black gorilla looking s.o.b's. 2 of which are training for mma fights and we all have iphones CTFU!!!

 

[thelatinist]

The entire Droid campaign seems targeted at a distinctly young, tech savvy, and above all male demographic. The iPhone, on the other hand, appeals to men and women of all ages. I doubt you'll see many people's grandmothers carrying a Droid. To me it seems like a big marketing mistake.

 

[kdarling]

Seems like those ads are a Rorschach test of people's insecurities.

Personally, I thought they were saying that the Droid wasn't pretty, but did a lot anyway... because beauty isn't everything.

 

[Applejuiced]

I agree.
They seem to be targeting tech Geeks instead of the general public.

The entire Droid campaign seems targeted at a distinctly young, tech savvy, and above all male demographic. The iPhone, on the other hand, appeals to men and women of all ages. I doubt you'll see many people's grandmothers carrying a Droid. To me it seems like a big marketing mistake.

 

[thegoldenmackid]

This isn't going to end up well.

 

[bigjnyc]

lol this is war is getting heated up now. And for those getting angry.... guess what we as the consumer stand to benefit the most from this:

- Apple will step up their game and add features to the iphone which will attempt to blow the Droid out of the water and shut verizon up... they might even lower the price to increase sales and really shut them up

- Hopefully this will motivate AT&T to improve their 3G coverage and maybe just maybe throw in an extra incentive to get customers to switch over just to stick it to verizon

So while Verizon fanboys and AT&T fanboys go at it in the forums I consider myself a BigJnyc/general consumer fanboy the third party involved in this battle so whatever benefits us is fine with me.

just my .02 (dont shoot!)

 

[thelatinist]

And for those getting angry...

I'm not angry. I'm just amused to see how poorly Verizon seems to understand how to battle the iPhone. You won't become an iPhone Slayer by targeting such a narrow demographic; the iPhone's greatest feature has always been its broad appeal. Verizon doesn't seem to get that.

 

[Mischka07]

Reminds me of a quote on the Crackberry forum I used to frequent:

"The Iphone is the Grand daddy of them all....witty, sexy, chicks dig him, the Curve is the smart and witty daughter in college that everybody is proud of, but she's not the prettiest, and the Storm......well the Storm is the younger brother... 6 foot 4", good looking but just a few fries short of a happy meal.....everybody is still expecting great things from him, but nobody is holding their breath....."

I guess with that advert, we can add the Droid to that list as the 10-year old brother who was raised on Monster and Rockstar energy drinks, likes to cut the heads off his sister's Barbie dolls, scream bloody murder at 2 AM, and runs up and down the halls with scissors attached to his wrist, pretending he's Wolverine.

 

[iHateMacs]

A brand new ad by Verizon portrays the iPhone and its users as effeminate and empty headed. I think its ridiculous.

http://brainstormtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2009/12/04/ad-wars-droid-manly-iphone-girly/

They can't be girly. Jeremy Clarkson has a white one. There's no one more manly than he.

 

[Knowlege Bomb]

Reminds me of a quote on the Crackberry forum I used to frequent:

"The Iphone is the Grand daddy of them all....witty, sexy, chicks dig him, the Curve is the smart and witty daughter in college that everybody is proud of, but she's not the prettiest, and the Storm......well the Storm is the younger brother... 6 foot 4", good looking but just a few fries short of a happy meal.....everybody is still expecting great things from him, but nobody is holding their breath....."

I guess with that advert, we can add the Droid to that list as the 10-year old brother who was raised on Monster and Rockstar energy drinks, likes to cut the heads off his sister's Barbie dolls, scream bloody murder at 2 AM, and runs up and down the halls with scissors attached to his wrist, pretending he's Wolverine.

I don't think it could have been said better.

 

[samcraig]

I work in marketing and pr. And I can say without question that while there are some good messages in the ad - that in act III it fails. "It's a robot" ? What does that even mean? Are they trying to say that the phone does exactly what you want? Or are they equating the droid with a terminator type device as being tough? It's a bad message. My response would be (and I'm no apple fan boy) - those who fall prey to this type of advertising are robots. Clearly Verizon must think that the consumer, like a robot will just do what they tell them to.

No thanks.

Apple should/could have fun with this messaging and remind people to Think Different. As in - DON'T be a robot.

 

[UngratefulNinja]

remind people to Think Different. As in - DON'T be a robot.

Love it!

 

[QCassidy352]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7D11 Safari/528.16)

First, it's not faster, so that part is just a lie.

Second, it is ugly, which I'm glad to see them finally owning up to.

Third, the 1950's called, and they want their gender stereotypes back.

 

[Small White Car]

Seems like those ads are a Rorschach test of people's insecurities.

Personally, I thought they were saying that the Droid wasn't pretty, but did a lot anyway... because beauty isn't everything.

Rorschach?

It looks like a straight fact that Verizon is putting up a "no girls allowed" sign on the droid.

You point out that it's really just an analogy (and you're right about that). But when you make an analogy showing that "female" = "our competition" you're pretty much ASKING women to take their money elsewhere.

 

[IDANNY]

the Reality distortion field

Most apple products have a certain kind of appeal that is accsesible to almost anyone.

There are very few other products like this. It seems to me that the droid is grasping at Whartever part of the market will take it.

 

[Consultant]

Most apple products have a certain kind of appeal that is accsesible to almost anyone.

There are very few other products like this. It seems to me that the droid is grasping at Whartever part of the market will take it.

That because Apple actually makes investment aka R&D of design and product usability (which saves user time, and time is money).

Making a better product that people see values in it (iPhone) is not reality distortion.

 

[jayenh]

Personally I like the fact that apple adds show the phone and what it can do. Although that was worth watching for comedy value. I do love American adds. Like your medicine adds that go on about how wonderful they can make your day then finish off by listing every possible side effect sorry, going off topic. My point was that add was all talk. We saw the phone for about 3 seconds?

 

[codymac]

I had a strong reaction to this ad... pissed that they blatantly ripped off Banksy in part of the animation.

 

[courtney.bella]

They can't be girly. Jeremy Clarkson has a white one. There's no one more manly than he.

I agree with this.

 

[Jpoon]

Typically I'm against Apple in their advertisement campaigns.

However, now with this Verizon attack from the Droid.... I feel more inclined to side with Apple / Death Star in this case.

#1 Verizon is the most expensive cell-phone carrier bar none.

#2 I can't use data on the Droid and talk at the same time. Deal breaker.

#3 Verizon has the worst customer service I've ever had the displeasure of dealing with. They demonize and blame everything on you (at least from my personal experience).

#4 I think the Droid looks ugly, and poorly made.

Anywho, that's my two cents.

 

[kdarling]

It looks like a straight fact that Verizon is putting up a "no girls allowed" sign on the droid.

More like they're putting a "girls only" sign on the iPhone. Quite different.

If a Jeep ad made fun of the New Beetle as being girlie, would that mean they're saying Jeeps are for boys only? No, it means they're saying New Beetles are for girls only.

"Should a phone be pretty? Should it be a tiara-wearing digitally clueless beauty pageant queen? Or should it be fast?"

Likewise, the ad doesn't say the Droid is for boys only. The ad says that you shouldn't buy a phone just because it's pretty.

There will be plenty of women with Droids, just as there are many women with Jeeps. In fact, I'd say that women would agree that a pretty hairdo alone doesn't define a person's capabilities.

---- In any event, this whole thread takes the ad too seriously. It seems quite tongue in cheek to me.