Branded cultural content: Nokia and Cloverfield

Henri Weijo — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 12:03:57 +0000

Just saw JJ Abrams’ new movie “Cloverfield”. The movie drew raves for its innovative viral campaign, with mysterious web-sites and blogs plus some very intriguing fake news videos:

The campaign itself is worth a blog post, but it’s been discussed ad nauseam, so I’ll concentrate on something else: Nokia’s effort to position itself as a credible prop in the movie. After its borderline embarrassing showing in Transformers, I was interested to see if they had toned down their presence a bit to a more supporting role instead of a corny cameo.

In cultural branding, a brand can become an icon through its association with popular culture and presence in influential cultural products. Classic examples are Harley Davidson and Easy Rider or Jack Daniels and Hud. As an example, Set Godin once said that Indiana Jones sold more hats for Stetson than any man since the Marlboro man.

Nokia has its own, poor man’s version of this kind of branding. The people at Nokia were very pleased at how their presence in “Matrix” aligned perfectly with the plot and the movie’s message. The lead character, Neo, was seen repeatedly using the so-called “banana phone”, the Nokia 8110. However, I don’t know if Neo as a character is iconic enough nor do I believe the link between Nokia and the Matrix is not quite as strong as for example Harley Davidson and Easy Rider. Also, the phone itself has become outdated so badly that the memory between 8110 and the current models might be fading. This I think is a recurring problem for brand building in any fast moving industry, such as mobile phones.

The banana phone, an iconic product?

So, back to Cloverfield. I think Nokia’s presence was very tastefully done, especially compared to Transformers where they Nokia was actually included in the dialogue and in a awful way at that. In Cloverfield, all the cell phones used were indeed Nokia’s, but their usage felt natural (people taking video and pictures of events etc.) and Nokia was never mentioned by name. In one scene, however, the shot is set in a way that you can see a large Nokia print ad in the background of a sobbing lead character, which I thought was pushing the limits of what is “artistically acceptable”, for a lack of a better word. But all in all, technically the inclusion of Nokia was nearly flawless, but how about in terms of cultural branding?

The thing about Cloverfield is that the characters are too “real”, in that none of them have the distinguishness to become an iconic character. This is of course the whole idea of the movie, but from Nokia’s perspective this is a letdown, as they likely won’t stand the test of time and be remembered as iconic characters of our era, like an Indiana Jones or James Bond. Also, again the phone usage is in such a supporting role in the movie that the link here might not be strong enough to argue that the characters’ phone usage is somehow essential to their persona. But on the other hand, the phone usage is indeed very natural and justified, so I guess in terms of building awareness for Nokia phones this works very well.

So all in all, tastefully done, but I think that the cultural branding potential was quite low to begin with, so I guess Nokia made the most of what they had to work with.drunk dorm sex
boy cam
gothic sex slave
tit fucking movies
latex fucked
girl wearing tight jeans
orientals ride dick
ass fucked granny
mature wifes
double screen doors
german xxx
fuck me daddy
filipina free cunt photos
milf interracial
girls who swallow forum
rubber mouth gags
hardcore blow job
extreme incest
latino marketing plastic surgery
Oversized Boobies-2 CD-1
shaved bald ladies
nudists shaved
anal maids
milf blowjobs
hairy strip
show me a clit
galleries teens bbs
horny nun
hardcore throat jobs
double door media storage tower
attilla the hun
femdom spit
strapon porn
free tit boob tgp sites
grandma facial
hardcore throat fucking
free rape stories
tranny vid
drunk horny girls
blowjobs in public free
smoking fetish forums
stories about school spankings
female erection
fitness personal professional training
public male nudity
hentai sites
fucked by dog
Oversized Boobies-2 CD-1
forced cum swallow
celebs caught nude free photos
free male celebrity sex tapes
Private Life Of 43 Life of Maria Belucci CD-1
petite hotties
teen in tights
throat tumors
holly hunt furniture
seating chart large shea stadium
vintage rodox hairy pussy thumbnails
black college girls in thong
male butt
asain girl
naughty lesbian nurses
muscular college girls
sexy lesbians using strapon
enormous penis
jeanna fine porn star
giving girls orgasms
skinny dick
young nudes
hot blonde wife
horny blonde teens
fat bitch fucked
anime school sex
rape me nirvana
filipina sexy tgp
gay male videos
tranny blonde
i caught mom cheating on dad
slut wife glory hole
gay mature fuck
largest human vagina
nylon panty fetish
deep sea fishing destin fl
panty hose teacher
bondage masturbation
secretary sexy sucks boss dick
hot latins
shemale best sex
Ill Toss Your Salad If You Butter My Buns CD-1
the bitch of living
teacher sex movies of nurse morgan ray
fixed rate private student loan consolidation
girls drinking cum
hot sex scenes
springs creative products group
ebony lick ffm
ass deep
gay eating cum
free online sexcam es
virgins teens
missouri personal property tax
lesbian lovers squirt
jackass party boy
animal rape
5 inch rubber deisel intake hose
sex gang bang
keira knightley porn
medical sex bondage
Tit Worship-2 CD-2
filipina alma
meredith brooks bitch
free spanking live clips
butt hole closeups
body piercings and tattoo
dirty talk while getting fucked
fat pornstars
pierced and tattooed girls
Waist Watchers CD-1
pantyhose cock
spanking erotic stories
lesbian cartoon
fat people sex
deep south wrestling
topless chick
life insurance quote whole london
twinks pics
better ways to masturbate
student teacher sexual relationships
first anal teen
breast enlargement surgeon delaware
sexy blonde fuck
teen twins
Textbook Pussies-6 CD-1
pissing fetish
family gay
cheerleader handjob
mr. big dicks hot chicks
vaginal fucking
strapon + fuck
erotic search engines
old black bbw
monster penis
cartoon cumshots
femdom free stories
bare fist fight
hung ebony shemales
shemale fuck
old sluts in stockings
pantyhose and nylon smut
free midget porn
old ladies extreme
ass eating
virgins teens
xxx gothic porn
lesbian sex video
free hentai game
hot squirting orgasms
asian sex mpegs
Private Xtreme-32 DP Factory
Lethal Latinas-3 CD-1

Branding, Culture, Politics, and Everything in Between » cloverfield

Branded cultural content: Nokia and Cloverfield