In the long list of ways we've seen tablets marketed over the past few years, from highlighting their technical aspects to their family-friendliness to their excellent customer service, there's one tactic that hasn't been deployed: comparing the device to an outdated hairstyle. But that's exactly what Nokia is doing in this new spot for its Lumia 2520 tablet—a two-minute film that will leave you scratching your head, feeling considerably uncomfortable, or most likely, both.
Although a bit of a stretch, the general premise of the ad, titled "For Work. For Play," makes some sense. Like the ever-controversial mullet, the Nokia Lumia 2520, with its high-res screen and reverse side that comes in an array of bright colors, is all "business in the front, party in the back." But that's where the "sense" ends. The actual story line of this ad is a total creep-fest, to put it mildly.
A man goes to a salon in search of a new haircut and encounters the word's creepiest barber since Sweeney Todd. After a lot of overzealous touching (note the decaying fingernails) from the barber, the strangely unfazed customer decides to go with "something a little different": a mullet. Rather than giving his customer an actual haircut, the barber summons his equally creepy assistant to present the man with a Nokia tablet on a silver platter and beckons him to "touch it."
As the man plays with the tablet, filled with pictures and videos of the barber and his assistant, his cropped hair magically grows into a voluminous mullet. The barber returns, inexplicably dressed in tennis whites, to see the unveiling of the new 'do. "All set for business," says the man. "All set to party!" adds the barber, stroking the man's hair.
The spot ends there, but were it to continue, we'll take a guess that the customer winds up dead while the barber adds his scalp to a large collection hidden in a secret room behind the shop. Then again, maybe the man just goes out and buys himself a Lumia 2520.
But yeah, probably murder.
