Warning! Warning! The robot casts of Forbidden Planet, Lost in Space, Knight Rider and more have finally assembled in the same spot for "Robots on the Move," part of GE's "Brilliant Machines" campaign from BBDO. Directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, the husband/wife team behind Little Miss Sunshine, the ad shows each robot making its way to a shared destination via hitchhiking, bus and subway (I wonder if the flesh-and-blood passengers even noticed while plugged into their own digital devices, devouring endless streams of data). The notion of robots massing at a big confab this close to the Mayan Doomsday of 12/21 makes me nervous. The voiceover swears that the iconic pop-culture contraptions are just curious about GE's own machines designed to make the world better. In that respect, the visually arresting spot's a total tease, and ultimately frustrating, as we never learn one byte of information about these marvelous new machines, let alone see them. Since this is GE, we're probably talking about newfangled kitchen appliances. But I can't help picturing super-high-tech blenders and toasters in a back room someplace, huddled with Cylons, Daleks and HAL 9000, plotting the destruction of the human race. Oh, and speaking of robots, where's Mystery Science Theater 3000's Cambot? Maybe he could help GE figure out a way to actually upload its ads in HD.
↧