Wednesday, December 03, 2008

A Lesson in Gadget Product Placement, Courtesy of Scooter Smiff [Product Placement]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/m48ROnDKFv0/a-lesson-in-gadget-product-placement-courtesy-of-scooter-smiff

Moderately musical little person Scooter Smiff has helpfully demonstrated, point by point, how not to endorse gadgets in your music video.

1. Get a company's flagship phone
I understand that Scooter Smiff's audience is probably as young as he is and doesn't buy many massive smartphones, but if you've got to shill for a BlackBerry, hope it's not the Pearl Flip. Matt—notably a gadget blogger, not a rapper—said it was kind of uncool, looked inconsistent, and even called it a "fatass". Next time beg for a Storm, or at least a Bold.

2. Don't include an incredibly boring product
So imagine you're a tween, just browsing YouTube, and you notice Scooter Smiff's teacher grading (UPDATE: fabricating, more like. Scandal!) his paper on an HP Touchsmart PC, with her fingers. This is the least exciting thing you've ever seen. It doesn't even make sense in context—it's like HP just edited a few seconds of their press materials into the video. Same goes for the inexplicable printer cameo.

3. Refrain from using devices that make you look even more like a child
Riding a miniaturized Cadillac Escalade will not help you look older, and will probably make those few people who actually have a toy like that return it as fast as they can drive it back to Sotheby's. See also: catcalling obviously older girls.

This song might not be as embarrassing as the iPhone's prominent r! ole in a certain inauspiciously-named (and NSFW) track from earlier this year, but a different difference here, and an important one, is that HP and BlackBerry actually wished this on themselves. [CrackBerry]