Google Chrome

The Grammy Awards this year shocked me with their advertisements. I was more drawn in by the commercials shown during the Grammy air time than ANY of the Super Bowl ads from a couple weeks ago, which I find slightly disturbing considering the cost of Super Bowl air time. However, it made for a more entertaining awards show for me, as I am always glad to watch commercials that I actually enjoy.


My favorite from this week, which I felt compelled to Tweet about when I saw a spot aired during the Grammys, is the Google Chrome campaign. It first caught my eye last year sometime with the "It Gets Better" spot, involving the online project that is aimed at giving hope to struggling teens coping with their sexuality. It is an extremely moving ad- the interesting and rare thing about this campaign is that every spot gives me chills at some point. Other spots include "Dear Sophie" where a father keeps videos and journal-type posts about his baby daughter as she grows up, and "Justin Bieber" that chronicles his journey as an internet sensation.


Each and every one of these commercials is made as a montage, using different features of Google Chrome to transition between cuts. They show the features without the voice over blatantly talking about them, which let's face it, unless it's one of maybe 5 celebrities with an ear-catching voice, is extremely boring. The final tagline, "The web is what you make of it." It seems so simple and cliche, yet there is a stroke of genius in the fact that it's never actually been said in a way that is this blunt before. It resonates with me after each spot has ended and the TV has long since changed to the next ad. Most recently, the ads are less specified at one story or person, and much broader, in a way that I can only imagine was done to appeal to a wider audience.


However, the one thing I liked about the earlier spots of this campaign is the boldness of the topics. There is obviously a lot of debate about the gay community, and I suppose the same goes for Justin Bieber- not that one can really draw strong parallels between these two and the issues that face them (just bear with me). Either way, there are so many opinions amongst audience members that the advertisers simply cannot account for all of them. That was something I found very shocking about my search for a link to these ads- the third or fourth Google link that came up was a Yahoo question, "Was anyone else completely appalled by the new Google Chrome campaign? I will no longer be using any Google products." ....Really? This is something I suppose I should get used to, the fact that there will be extreme views of certain issues and products one way or another, but the fact that this was one of the immediate searches that came up with numerous comments agreeing with this post made me realize just how big of a step Google took with this campaign, and I applaud them for that.


I look forward to seeing where they take this campaign in the future because I think it is an extremely strong concept, and they could certainly adapt by placing the newest internet sensations and YouTube videos into their spots. I wonder, though, with a product with this many capabilities and this broad of a tagline, if Google will stick with this campaign path. The bigger question is if they will continue to do television advertising at all after they've made a big enough splash; after all, their other advertising has been solely online and maybe even unnecessary.