BBH's Weepy Google Chrome Ads: Is the Love Affair Over? The latest spot's star can't accept that
Google's cavalier attitude toward privacy makes its latest spot for the Chrome browser—by Google Creative Lab and BBH New York—feel kind of awkward, as the subject matter veers dangerously close to cyberstalking. Meet Mark Potter, who uses Chrome and related tools in an all-out effort to win back his ex-girlfriend, Jen. She ditched him because, among other things, he spent too much time at work, presumably hacking around online. Now, he's clicking away at his keyboard, obsessively importing Jen's image into every manner of media to convince her to meet him for coffee. Dude, it's overkill. Jen's mailbox must be jammed with these lovelorn appeals; it's time to filter Romeo on Gmail and take out a restraining order. Commenters seem split. Some say they're moved to tears by the advertiser's familiar tear-jerking style (get a life, people!), while others (ahem, the right-thinking folks) decry Google's descent into tiresome and manipulative sentimentality. Indeed, this emotional, screenshot-heavy approach, so fresh two years ago in "Parisian Love," has fizzled like a spent love affair. Like Mark Potter, Google should acknowledge that it's over, learn to let go, and move on.
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AdFreak is your daily blog of the best and worst of creativity in advertising, media, marketing and design. Follow us as we celebrate (and skewer) the latest, greatest, quirkiest and freakiest commercials, promos, trailers, posters, billboards, logos and package designs around. Edited by Adweek's Tim Nudd. Updated every weekday, with a weekly recap on Saturdays.


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