Stigma can be a difficult beast to shake, just ask abstinent football players or Asian race car drivers (Do they even exist? Probably not). And in the two-dog world of big name, zeitgeist-capturing smartphones, cachet most certainly rules everything around me. We are conditioned for example, to associate Apple’s ubiquitous iPhone with youth, creativity and Justin Long. BlackBerry on the other hand, is all emails, business meetings and Patrick Bateman. So what? Who cares? Well, the great thing with brands, especialy ones with money, is their ability to change such pre-conceived notions via paid-for messages called advertising (note: this post isn’t one such instance). And in BlackBerry’s quest to appeal to people who aren’t Octogenarian billionaires or Russian Oligarchs with seven wives, they’ve subtly repositioned themselves from the email efficient phone favoured by coke-addled Wall Street types to the Twitter efficient phone favoured by coke-addled creative types. Hipsters! Young people!
The sparkly new ads (see below) makes pains to spruik the phone’s social media capabilities and thus, the myriad ways it will assist your burgeoning yet fragmented creative endeavours (DJ, courier, fashion designer, photographer or street dancer for example). Blackberry have also enlisted some big name spokespeople including DJ/Producer Diplo (who can wear the shit out of a suit I might add) and fashion and beauty photographer Steven Menendez. Also, it doesn’t hold the crossover appeal of an iPod commercial but the ad for Blackberry’s new iPad competitor, the PlayBook, features Cut Copy’s new jam “Where I’m Going”. Appeal to them young people, BlackBerry! I’m actually kinda impressed. Watch below.
