That Olympus m:robe 500i Super Bowl ad

God, weren't those two Olympus Super Bowl ads for the m:robe 500i just embarrassingly bad? Neither did that great of a job explaining what the deal with their new MP3 player/digital camera was, and the whole poplocking theme made them seem really, really desperate to be perceived as hip. They should have saved their millions.

[mkat @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

I thought it really caught my attention.

[mike s. @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

ugh, I thought it was awful, too. I was watching the game with a bunch of mainly non-geek friends and they all thought it was dumb.

[---ryan @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

I enjoyed them. Maybe you missed the part of them taking pictures and listening to music. I think I got the point. I also enjoyed hearing the Les Rythmes Digitales track again. It's been awhile since I've heard that one.

[Guttrhead @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

Isn't that exactly what the ipod ads did too?

[dawggpie @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

the ads were badly done, but the device itself caught my attention. They should have stressed the music player aspect of it more instead of "pictures with music" or whatever it was they said. The touch screen idea looked neat although it might not be that functional.

[Mike @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

Projectile vomiting catches people's attention too

[ken @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

Well, if you think about it the ad. It did its job two fold. It got my attention and I went asap to the website to check it out. I bet they had a ton of hits at that time. Second, it did its job again, becuase you guys posted it on the engadget website which reaches a few million a day!

[Alex @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

The point of an ad is not just to grab people's attention, it's also to craft a certain image for a product, and I found myself turned off by the ad itself.

[Ian @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

YEESH! This add wasn't worse then any of the iPod commercials. Substitute running around like an idiot in silouhette with poplocking and it's the same damn add. The iPod commercials say nothing about their product anymore!

[cnpalmer @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

I missed it...

I was too busy watching the GoDaddy.com ad over & over again.

[not an ipod fan, but... @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

I'm not an automatic iPod fan or anything, but olympus is going to have to do better than that. almost everyone already knows what the iPod is about, and the mrobe ad didn't do enough to give the average person a reason to buy that over an iPod. it takes pictures? big deal. so does my phone. Apple has more or less proven that people aren't buying MP3 players because of features (we already know that the iPod lacks all sorts of extras and people still are buying it), but on simplicity of use and integration with iTunes.

[Drew Jones @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

While not the most original ad, it caught my interest. And it must have caught a bunch of other people's too. When I checked Amazon, they had 1 left in stock. And Amazon indicates this for compatibility: "Compatible with Windows 2000 Professional and Home Edition and XP Professional and Home Edition." Wow, Windows 2000 Home edition!

[pprina @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

This would be decent if it had an SD slot. That way you could use this as a device to backup/store your digital camera pictures. Sort of like the iPod without the ungainly and expensive addon.

[Another User @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

I'm sure the targeted audience of that commercial was not exactly engadget-type readers, so it's not all that significant what we think about it. It caught my eye, my techie friends eye and the other non-tech inclined people watching the ad. It's good and seems effective according to the Amazon sell out. There goal was somewhat accomplished and that's what's important.

[cuby @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

No one product stays "hip" forever, not even the iPod. Right now we have only a bunch of sweaty, homebound geeks who detest the iPod for one reason or another; but sooner or later, the mainstream will start looking for something different so they can start trumping their iFriends.

Olympus did exactly what it had to do, which is to position itself as the first viable alternative to would-be iPod buyers who want to show off something a bit different. The m:Robe is currently the only player with the physical looks capable of attracting the shallow snots who buy technology for status, and the second hipsters start getting bored with iPod, they will now turn to Olympus.

PS You guys are impossible to please. Those ads were perfect.

[Chris K @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

Agreed. This is NO different than the Apple ads. Silhouette the people and you have an iPod ad.

So why the hate for Olympus?

[olivier @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

The commercial was sooo bad you guys put it up on your website put up a picture and talked about it.. I think they got their moneys worth.. no question!

[Malfoy @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

Because most didnt know what this product was before seeing the commerical. They don't even have to put the word ipod in ipods commercial and were well aware of what it is and dont pay it much mind. In other words. Olympus is trying to sell us on something new thats better than the iipod so their commercial really has to be something we like. Ipod is just keeping its name in our heads so they don't really have to do much.

[Peter Rojas @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

When did I say I liked the iPod ads any better?

[alex @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

how could anyone possibly say those ads were "perfect"? they were weak and the bad CGI was really lame.

[ElCapitanAmerica @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

#13

Actually I think the ad was well done. Forget bad CGI, who cares about that, it got attention to the product and did it in a way that made people take notice.

I question the viability of this product as a music player, since it just seems too big just by looking at the commercial.

But the ad is pretty good, definetly better than the Sony commercials for their player.

[alex @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

even if the mrobe got attention, was it good attention? it's hard to imagine enough people deciding to buy this player because of the ad to justify its costs, which most have been in the millions. better to take a more grassroots approach, build some organic buzz for the product.

[Adam Lynch @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

Maybe I missed this, but what is the resolution of the camera?

[Frank @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

The camera is only 1.2. I would think 2mega pixel would the minimum.

The commercials were ok. I didnt hate or love them.. although, I did check out the website cause I thought it looked cool.

[ElCapitanAmerica @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

1.2 megapixel camera? Geez ...

[Rick @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

The Olympus commercial came out very well according to USA Today.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/advertising/admeter/2005-ad-meter-results-chart.htm

[mike s. @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

Olympus looks like they're more in the middle of the pack, but according to the people USA Today surveyed, those awful CareerBuilder ads with the monkeys were three of the top ten aids aired. I find that hard to swallow.

[adam darby @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

man, i'm glad i didn't watch the superbowl with any of you haterz. there were a lot of other commercials that were pointless and ineffective (so much so that i don't remember what they were). the careerbuilder one was FUNNY! come on!

[huh? @ Dec 19th 2005 12:10AM]

not as bad as the napster ad...
here, son hold up this cardboard sign we got an intern to mockup...