Quick Hit: Aliens ponder why humans are stressed out around the holidays, when they could just use their mobile phones to shop.
This is quickly becoming one of the favorite viral video hits of the holiday season – something about how the aliens are puzzled by all the stress we put ourselves through just seems to strike a chord. As does the Homer Simpson-esque “Mmmm … eggnog” utterance of the paternal alien.
But what struck me most here was how the aliens, giving advice to us silly humans, casually thumbed (blue tentacled?) through Argus’ fully mobified site on their HTC smartphones. What that tells me is that shopping via your mobile device is simultaneously a big deal … and yet, something that anybody could (and should) do, since it is a time, money and stress-saver.
What a brilliant sell. In much the same way as E.T. sold us all on Reese’s Pieces, maybe these blue, longnecked, terrycloth aliens, will sell the public on the idea that phones are a perfectly acceptable way to spend money. The fact that this ad isn’t like the aggressive, lightning-bolts + explosions + cyborgs = smartphone usage ads (that actually kinda intimidate most users above the age of 16) is a clear indicator that this kind of user behavior is reaching beyond the early adopters and into the “Harried Moms” market segment.
Like I said: smart.
