New brand campaign from Orange from Fallon.
I think there's a really good central thought here - something to do with mobiles connecting and enabling your life - past, present and future. Certainly a brave attempt to position Orange as more important than a particular tariff or offer on a new phone.
But I find it a bit dark and a tiny bit creepy.
It might be the music (slightly melancholy piano number, that reminds me of a cross between Four Tet and Boards of Canada).
Or perhaps it's the way people fade in and out like a dream / nightmare.
Maybe it's the way no-one seems to smile properly. (Even the 'encouraging' teacher, has an evil glint in her eyes).
It actually makes me feel that David Lynch might have been involved, and the narrator / viewer is actually a psychopathic serial killer living in a distopian world.
Good to see that it's spawned some rip-offs already. Check out this reworked version: 'Agent Orange'.
Suddenly the original doesn't seem quite so disturbing.
2 comments:
The author here.
I found the news of the new campaign late at night on The Guardian's website and got quite disturbed by it. I just thought that using the "I am" phrase for advertising purposes is kind of intrusive. It just tries to settle somewhere within your identity - a "space" that I personally try to keep for myself. It is true that your friends and family are part of it but brands isn't really something I easily let in. We have already been infused with brands so much that there is not much "true us" anymore. This was my first little attempt to remind myself and maybe others to stay on guard because there is quite a lot of smart guys out there who constantly think of new, innovative ways to make us believe brands constitute who we are.
By the way... The music is a piano version of John Zorn's track called "Ruan". I chose because it has the melancholic Jewish influences. I am a big fan of Klezmer music myself. I thought it just really worked well with the tempo of the video - I think it actually worked better than the original.
So... that's it hope it sheds some light on the motives/reasons behind it. It is all quite obvious and might be a bit silly too....
...however...I am glad someone bothered to comment on that.
A.O.
Thanks for your comments A.O. Sorry been away on holiday so onlyu just responding now.
I think you've got a really valid point - there are some spaces that advertisers really shouldn't go unless they're invited in. Mobile phones might be the centre of many of our universes, but maybe Orange shouldn't be reminding us that they're collecting lots of data about all of our day-to-day interactions...
I have been 'reliably' informed from someone who knows someone at Fallon that this is just the start of the campaign and that 'I am' is just a TV ad (that wasn't even made in the UK). Have to say the amount of outdoor advertising space that has been bought in London is enormous - every major railway station is dripping with Orange.
But I have to say that I do like a lot of what Orange have done in the past - particularly the online work by Poke. And I love their Glastonbury initiatives from this year (GPS find a friend etc.)
I guess we'll have to see what happens next, but let's hope Orange don't abuse the relationships they do have with their customers.
(and thanks for the music reference too!)
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