Palm rolls out ad campaign that doesn’t suck

Palm has rolled out a new ad campaign for webOS and while it’s a really good depiction of how the device operates, it may be too little, too late.

The ad shows an attractive young lady walking down the street while some Mos Def music blasts. She’s seeing webOS screens in stride and it’s a great visualization of how Palm’s device can handle multiple applications at once. “Life moves fast. Don’t miss a thing,” is the new tag line, and it’s quite appropriate.

I love webOS. I think it’s incredibly elegant platform that has a great vision for how we should interact with mobile computers. Unfortunately, Palm crapped the bed with the hardware and advertising. The Pre is a nice phone but the keys are just too small and it has a plastic feel, and the Pixi is just too underpowered to handle the OS. The advertising has been incredibly tone-deaf too. Here is one of the “greatest hits”:

This one is creepy, weird and doesn’t convey the clear advantages webOS has over the competitors. I can’t seem to find the Verizon mom ads anymore because these were condescending and borderline sexist. The new ad is a great step forward but Palm needs a lot more than this if it can step back from the edge of the abyss. The company hasn’t been selling as well as the company predicted and it’s in the middle of a “jumpstart” initiative to move units. I wish Palm well because I’m a fan of webOS but it has a long way to go.

[Via MobileCrunch]