Slayer fans rejoice! (Or don't.) Your favorite band is now scoring Google commercials.
The tech company shows its fangs this Halloween with the short-and-sweet 30-second spot below for its Chromebook laptop, set to the 1986 song "Raining Blood" by the iconic thrash-metal band. There's really nothing much to the commercial—not that that's a bad thing. The song sets the groove, as big, blocky, multicolored text delivers a series of Halloween-themed copy lines about the low-priced machine. "For little devils," it begins. "For scaring off viruses. For spooky-fast startup." And so on. "For a fun size" is particularly playful, as the type suddenly shrinks to Halloween-candy-bar dimensions.
The spot wraps with a few product shots and the tagline: "For everyone."
Some might balk at the ad's simplicity and low production values. But in some ways, the low-budget approach simply reinforces the product message—just because it's cheap doesn't mean it can't be fun.
Two other spots in the series are somewhat less effective. Another :30, titled "For Goodbye to All That," has essentially the same setup—except it's set to Wagner's "Ride Of The Valkyries" and its copy is more generic, outlining typical laptop headaches from which Chromebook will free you. There's also a :60 anthem, featuring pithy text about who and what the laptop is "for" superimposed over lots of home-movie footage. It's a bit of a shaggy spot, with a soundtrack, "Negative Thinking" by Australian punk band the Death Set, that adds plenty of energy but doesn't quite give the ad the shape it needs.
Are these ads "for everyone"? Maybe not. But the egalitarian theme shines through in all of them. A treat, rather than a trick, for this Halloween.
CREDITS
Client: Google Chromebook
Campaign: "For Everyone"
Agency: Google Creative Lab
Production Company: Greenpoint Pictures
Director: Jacob Lincoln