Down in Flames

"Mr. Sun," a spot created by 180/LA to introduce the Sony Dash, is on fire -- in a really bad way. It represents something new in TV commercials: a message that leaves the viewer begging for more product info and less entertainment.And unbelievably enough, the spot is nicely produced and the Dash looks sleek and kind of interesting -- it's just totally eclipsed by somebody's idea of a joke.[jwplayer rwp6tEme-1kT9Z8rj] First of all, who decided that the sun should be made over into a clueless corporate oaf in a bad brown suit with a terrifying fireball for a head? What an assault on the red ball's image. Any American worth his or her grain of salt knows that the sun is a perfectly nice guy who wrangles Venus, Mars, the moon, a rainbow and sundry other planetary systems in a friendly way on behalf of Jimmy Dean sausages and frozen breakfast foodstuffs. That campaign, from TBWA\Chiat\Day, is a continual delight. I particularly love the latest spot involving the gray, monochromatic rainbow slumped at her desk, who not only brightens up the entire color chart after ingesting her microwave breakfast, but also has the strength to summon up a leprechaun and a pot of gold.By comparison, seeing this guy impersonate the sun (and repeatedly immolate the arm of the dude he's talking to) is like finding out there isn't a Santa Claus. (Please don't tell me that he lives in a basement and rents a smelly suit at Christmas time!) Plus, given the girth and the brown suit, Mr. Sun reminded me of John Hodgeman's portrayal of the PC -- without the wit or poignance and with radioactive parts.Interestingly, the Jimmy Dean campaign uses the sun to make an otherwise gross or dull product lively and interesting. By contrast, Sony has a perfectly useful, desirable product that viewers need to see -- and hijacks it with thoughts of third-degree burns or certain death.There's too much going on here. While the look of the Sony Innovation center is interesting -- it even includes several tester beds with pillows and Dashes -- the CGI guy is about 10,000 degrees too intense, and I'm still caught up with why the guy in the next cube keeps a fire extinguisher handy.On its most basic level, the whole "waking up to the Dash" strategy makes sense -- it's like god's own alarm clock, a kind of video butler. At $199 it doesn't do, and isn't expected to do, what the iPad does (it actually has to be plugged in). But it has a sleeker look than its warm and fuzzy predecessor, the Chumby. In the morning, you can use the Dash to provide a personalized wake-up song and incorporate everything else involving Planet You: your music, apps, Facebook and Twitter feeds, and all the localized weather you could dream of. (Say you live in L.A., but like to know whether it's raining in Pittsburgh.) And yes, you could do all this on your phone, but it doesn't have as big a screen. Or you could use your laptop, but it takes up more room on the bedside table. I could also see it being useful in the kitchen to entertain the kiddies with videos while you cook, or for the office if you don't want your private apps and settings on your office computer. It could be the perfect Christmas gift for the Hammacher-Schlemmerized person who already gave away the alarm clock that projects on the ceiling and is so over the talking picture frame.Really, there's so much to explain that the best approach would be to just show the device, but Apple already owns that signature stripped-down approach involving just a finger and few flicks of the screen, backed by cool music. And I'm all for fun and storytelling, but in this execution the Mr. Sun device way overshadows the nice Mr. Sony device.The brand association for viewers should be the prospect of waking to a soothing song. Instead, they get burned. And even as a joke, that's cold.

Brand Marketing

Down in Flames

Barbara Lippert

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Barbara Lippert