Eleven Movies About Google’s Browser, One Cool Song
by Peter Kafka
Posted on May 8, 2009 at 7:13 PM PT
Well, Google can’t say it’s not in the content business anymore.
Here are 11 ads the company has commissioned to promote its Chrome browser. Most are designed to be “viral videos,” though you might see one of them–”Evolution of Simple”–on TV because Google (GOOG) will be buying some airtime for the spot using its TV Ads platform.
So really, it’s a twofer–an ad for both the browser and for Google’s attempt to break into television advertising, which hasn’t gotten very far to date.
Andrew LaVallee at Digits, a section of The Wall Street Journal, has more about the campaign, and you can download the browser here. Unless you’re using an Apple (AAPL) computer, since Chrome doesn’t work (yet) on Macs.
I’m not a huge fan of any of these, but what do I know? I liked those Microsoft (MSFT) ads with Jerry Seinfeld that inspired much braying from the Web’s amateur ad critics.
Though I do sort of like the “Google Chrome” spot, with that Beatles/ELO soundtrack that turns out to be the work of someone named Tim Myers. The song has also been used to sell Lay’s potato chips in a cool/creepy Canadian commercial; it also showed up on an episode of ABC’s “Ugly Betty.”
If you ask me, it sounds like something you would hear in an Apple ad.
