R/GA stages an extreme version of Tic-tac-toe in its “Life of the Extreme” spot for the Samsung Galaxy Note Edge.
The ad opens on two men in cars, with one of them choosing a meeting spot by drawing an “x” on a digital map and sending it to the other. In the next scene the men meet up, and the ominous music lends the scene a sense of suspense. But instead of some kind of spy showdown, the men instead jump out of a plane together to play a game of Tic-tac-toe while in freefall. The rather absurd staging of an extreme version of what amounts to just about the least “extreme” game imaginable then meets with an unexpected interruption before its fairly predictable outcome.
This is an odd approach, to say the least, and while its strangeness may make the spot memorable, there’s not a lot here to actually sell the Galaxy Note Edge. It seems more than a little unlikely that people would purchase a phone for its Tic-tac-toe capabilities.