Google's latest Pixel vs iPhone ad is equal parts heartwarming and cringeworthy (video)
Even though Google has been (more or less) involved in the mobile hardware manufacturing business for over a decade, it's definitely no secret that the replacement of the Nexus family with the Pixel smartphone line brought with it a major increase in the search giant's resources invested in this industry.
We're talking everything from hardware design to software support and, yes, marketing, with the latter department very clearly ramping up its spending in the last couple of years. But the newest Pixel ad doesn't star any of the greatest basketball players around, and with the Super Bowl still many months away, it's unlikely to have cost Google much.
Instead of all that, the 90-second YouTube video embedded below seems to take a page from Samsung's combative playbook while following five similar clips in the same "#BestPhonesForever" campaign from just last week.
Titled "Friends React", the new spot stars a Pixel 7 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro having a (robotic) little chat over how the aforementioned five previous videos were received by YouTube viewers and commenters.
Although the unlikely friendship between the two rivals certainly represents a nice change of pace from Samsung's ultra-aggressive anti-Apple commercials of years past, the undertones of the ad campaign are obviously meant to highlight the Pixel's superiority over the competition in various fields.
To its credit, Big G manages to tone down the iPhone mockery for this sixth installment in the "Best Phones Forever" series, clearly spreading more love than hate... while also finding the time to promote the Pixel 7's Gorilla Glass coating (on both sides) and very neat Live Translate functionality.
Acknowledging the cringiness of these ads right off the bat is definitely a nice touch too, even if that doesn't completely negate the point of commenters making the complaint. If anything, this is probably the most cringeworthy video in the series, at least so far, combining that with a heartwarming angle that you never see in commercials of this type and a solid dad joke towards the end revolving around the act of "shipping."
The YouTube comments this time around seem to be overwhelmingly positive, and again to Google's credit, the company is engaging with the public quite a lot, which makes us expect even more "Best Phones Forever" episodes in the near future.
FCC OKs Cingular\'s purchase of AT&T Wireless
Things that are NOT allowed: