Thanks for watching, or not

While many TVCs these days strive to impress with compelling storylines and spectacular imagery, Qualcomm has done the opposite. It’s released two 30-second TVCs featuring father and son duos folk dancing and beatboxing but despite being not half bad, they’re not engaging.

Called ‘Ignore This’, the videos read “This is a strange commercial” at the beginning, before acknowledging that they serve as a background to people using their phones. As the enthusiastic dancers and beatboxers get underway, the text encourages the audience to surf on their smartphones or even find a date. It’s an odd strategy for an advertiser to take, but at the end of each video, it’s revealed that Qualcomm is the inventor of the technology that makes every smartphone so engagement with a smartphone is, therefore, engagement with the brand.

The point is reiterated further in a 60-second video about all the things our phones do for us and all of the moments they’re apart of.

From finding a date to delivering dumplings and acting as a camera, the ad shows how Qualcomm is also there in every aspect of smartphone users’ lives.