May 03, 2007

Millimetres matter, but so do little crawlies


Saw this remarkable ad for Samsung during a visit to b3ta , and must admit to having mixed feelings upon watching it.
b3ta readers are known for rejoicing in the offensive and the cruel, but regularly show a soft spot for small fluffy animals and, it would appear, for insects too:

“what gimp thought of applying that to - specifically - launching minature custard pies at insects? What sort of deranged mind would make that leap?”
“seems a bit cruel to me”
“never thought i'd feel sorry for creepy crawlies”
“What kind of cunt thinks firing sticky shit at insects wings will make people want to buy that phone? I know they're only insects, but there's just no need.”
"it's up there with Sony sacrificing a cow at a computer games press conference.”

The supporting website does declare that “no insects were harmed in the making of Millimetres Matter but some did get a little sticky... actually, they seemed quite happy to help clean up - by eating up the sugary mess!”
But in all my years, I’ve never seen a bee smile.

3 comments:

RFB said...

Pretty damned inventive if you ask me. And since when was there a Society for the Ethical Treatment of Things We Normally Squash with our Shoes?

People are too sensitive today. They all need giant custard pies tossed at them.

SchizoFishNChimps said...

You mean that you don't shed a silent tear for those poor ickle flies that get mashed on your visor when you're jetpacking to the office?

Age said...

I'll kill a spider quicker than most people... but this ad bothers me.

Maybe it's because the concept is just wrong. Yes, most of us hate spiders and yucky creepy crawlies, but when the camera is so close (millimeters away ironically!!) these little critters appear to gain some personality, and in a weird way, look more... real and less threatening/disgusting.

They're cute, and somewhat helpless. Which makes it worse when the food starts hitting them because it comes across as cruel and unfair.