Google Gets Nudists, Prancercisers and Dolphins to Amusingly Advertise Its OnHub Router

For the layperson, internet routers are generally ugly and boring. They either work and are ignored, or they don't and are infuriating.

But Google is having some fun promoting its OnHub, taking it on the road to a nudist colony, an Ernest Hemingway lookalike contest, a senior center's bingo night, and a dolphin tank—all to show off how good it looks, and the tricks it can perform.

OnHub's sleek design means it looks good naked, and doesn't need to hide under a desk, says this two-minute online ad. It goes on to plug the router's guest network feature, which lets bearded visitors to a hotel—would-be literary pugilists that they are—access only some devices. In another scene, Joanna Rohrback, the inventor of the light-footed fitness method Prancercise, checks her wifi speed from her backyard while teaching a class.

In yet another scene, elderly revelers use the OnHub's new tie-in with Phillips Hue lights to change the color of the overheads, and the game-room mood, with a simple website. Lastly, dolphin trainers use the router's integration with "If This Then That," a simple programming tool for consumers, to make physical buttons play specific music, inspiring their aquatic charges to dance.

The argument that OnHub "is more than a router" may be a little semantic for some audience members, and the bells-and-whistles applications might feel niche for general users. But at the very least, the clip is entertaining and piques curiosity, largely thanks to the inviting, casual sense of enjoyment and quirkiness that pervades it. Even when the camera is focused on, say, a bunch of dudes in the buff shaking hands, and the upbeat tone should feel staged and disingenuous, it doesn't—it's just silly.

Then again, the fact that it's not hideous is probably in itself a good enough sales pitch.