Ever since Yahoo introduced its "It's y!ou" campaign last September, it seems like we've been getting "you-ed" up the wazoo in advertising. Granted, technology is having a customizable moment and the use of the y-word reflects this. But there's more than one layer of irony in multiple advertisers attempting to target millions of people with messages about their individuality.
 
It reminds me of that crucial scene in Monty Python's Life of Brian, in which Brian, the alleged savior, is standing on his balcony shooing the worshipful crowd away. He wants them to think for themselves. "You're all individuals," he says. "You're all different." A hand is raised at the back of the crowd and a lone squeaky voice says, "Er, I'm not."

Maybe it's a pipe dream, but I would hope my identity is a fluid thing that keeps adapting and growing, not something that can be locked in by any number of marketers riding the personalization wave. Take mobile phone marketers: T-Mobile recently sold its myTouch phones with the line, "100% you," and now, in its major debut in the U.S -- via Deutsch/LA -- the Chinese phone manufacturer HTC is using the phrase, "It's you."


 
HTC is the world's biggest seller of smart phones. For years, it provided them to Sprint and T-Mobile, but never marketed itself as a brand in the U.S. Now it's marketing its phones, built on Android, the Google operating system, under its own name.

Actually, it's unfortunate that HTC's is the third campaign with "you" to break, because otherwise, it has a lot to recommend it.

I'm no fan of anthem commercials, which these are. (In fact, one is called "Anthem.") I understand agencies do them because marketers are myopically in love with their brands. They're also good for rousing the sales force and easier to get right than spots that are highly conceptual or contain subtle, well-written jokes. But anthems seem about as old-school McEighties as the already quasi-dinosaurish TV commercial can get. Let's take 60 seconds to bathe in brand essence a la 1987, with images that move to the literal words of the music, shall we?

That said, HTC's -- directed by David Frankham from Smuggler and shot in Buenos Aires -- are beautifully crafted and smartly written. They repeat the word "you" over cool, minimalist music (Nina Simone and Felix da Housecat) and offbeat visuals. The casting is also edgier than usual. The result is pure energy that builds into an addictive rhythm. In the end, all the various staccato "you's" are illustrated by the word written out, with the phone (and the hand operating it) acting as the "o" between a "y" and "u" animated in such a way that they pop. It's a good combo: as bookends, the fat, scrawly, imperfect "y" and "u" humanize the sleek, black piece of technology. The viewer's eye is not only attracted to the moving hand, but also to the changing "faces" of the phone, which allow personalized scenes. What's unexpected is how "you"' is turned on its head as the announcer says, "You don't need to get a phone. You need a phone that gets you."


There are two versions of "Anthem," a 60- and 30-second. A third spot, "First Thing," shows the emotional connections people have with their smart phones. It opens with a dude turning his cellphone alarm off as the voiceover says, "It's the first thing you use in the morning and the last thing you see at night." This hits upon an interesting point not yet made in the category: increasing numbers of people are giving up their landlines -- or never establishing them to begin with -- and their cell phones are becoming their identities and lifelines. As such, users are truly attached to them; the phone becomes as important as a wallet, passport and keys.

Outdoor media includes digital boards with a matrix of messages customized to the weather, city, time and/or current events. There are also customized online banners geo-tagged for time, date and weather.

In terms of TV, the best is yet to come. A series of five 15-second spots, all with the same intriguing Philip Glass-like music, each sells a different phone and a unique feature. I love "Kickstand," in which the announcer says, "You love a big screen. You love loudspeakers. But you don't want to hold your phone for an hour." Voila, we see the HTC Imagio phone actually has a stand so you can leave it upright on a table. "Entertainment with a kick...stand," says the voiceover.

Something completely different, demonstrated perfectly. Or maybe that's just me.

See also: "The Trouble With Y!ou"