Truth in Advertising: Droids Are For Dudes?
Last Thursday, Verizon debuted a new tough-talking ad for the Droid aimed at making it appear more dude-friendly than that girly iPhone.
“Should a phone be pretty?” it asks, “Should it be a tiara-wearing digitally-clueless beauty pageant queen? Or should it be fast? Racehorse-duct-taped-to-a-Scud-missile fast? We say the latter. So we built the phone that does. Does rip through the Web like a circular saw through a ripe banana. Is it a precious porcelain figurine of a phone? No. It’s not a princess. It’s a robot. A phone that trades hair-do for can-do.”
Phones are the new cars; they are status symbols that we take with us everywhere. Hence, Verizon is hoping men want their phones to have lots of “horsepower.“ As AllThingD puts it:
The male ego is a fragile thing. The last thing you want is a phone that challenges it with an effeminate form factor and pantywaist performance specs. As a guy, you want a phone that doesn’t emasculate you every time you whip it out. Otherwise, you might become insecure and resentful.
You wouldn’t necessary think this Droid ad is taking on the iPhone until the “princess” is shown with a white iPhone. In truth, an iPhone user is 21% more likely to be male according to Nielsen. But perhaps the male/female juxtaposition is not intended literally, but meant rather to imbue the device with certain Y-chromosome qualities. As MocoNews points out, the Droid is noticeably masculine. "Starting with its looks, the device is solid black and is squared off on every corner. There's not an elegant bone in its body. Even the homescreen sports a steel-grey display."
They go on to speculate that the ads might alienate women, as does the eCommerce Times, which asks “What's Verizon trying to accomplish with its characterization of the iPhone as a vapid female in contrast to the testosterone-soaked Droid? Will male AT&T subscribers drop their iPhones -- and their carrier -- in order to prove their manliness? Will women lust after a sexy robot? Are we living in the 1960s? Has Verizon's ad agency lost its mind?”
What do you think? Is this whole concept dated? Does it make you want a Droid? Or get defensive over your iPhone?
Truth in Advertising is a running series of television commercials that portray consumers using mobile technology in their everyday life. They take a look at how brands are demonstrating our want and need for mobility. Click here to view previous entries.
