Palm, Apple and the language of imagery

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Dear Sprint –

Congrats on the launch of the Palm Pre. I was previously a Sprint customer and have used various Palm devices, but I stopped being a customer of both quite some time ago. Maybe the Palm Pre is an amazing device, I dunno. I hope it is.

But when I saw this ad in the newspaper, I thought — what’s the imagery trying to communicate here? Why does the Palm Pre need Apple to support it? Like the Pre needs a crutch of some kind. Is it not possible for the Pre to stand on its own?

And hey — using the product-on-white-background-with-reflection image that Apple has made so au courant? I think that’s pure marketing genius but I’m not sure.

But really, the chewed up apple is still standing, holding up the Pre. What are we supposed to be thinking here?

Respectfully,

Bob

Palm, Apple and the language of imagery

5 thoughts on “Palm, Apple and the language of imagery

  1. Pup says:

    These two sentences are cleverly positioned:

    “The Palm Pre does things the iPhone can’t. Run multiple applications at the same time…”

    If a colon followed the word “can’t”, then it’s false advertising since the iPhone certainly can run multiple applications at once (Apple just chooses to be careful about doing so).

    But the period makes this two separate statements while still goading the reader into thinking the iPhone can not.

    Pretty sneaky, actually.

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