Google has been trying to flip the lack of uniformity among Android devices into an advantage in its current ad campaign. The latest spot reiterates the mobile operating system’s “Be Together, Not the Same” tagline through the childhood game of rock, paper, scissors.
In the ad, a teenaged sheet of paper attending Anthropomorphic High (our name, not Google’s) is being bullied by his pulp-based classmates when an unlikely hero comes to his rescue: A pair of scissors.
Instead of violently slicing the cowering paper in half, scissors and paper become quick buddies. When these new friends venture outside, they see a rock getting harassed by—you guessed it—other rocks. Paper does his thing by scaring off rock, and the three not-at-all-human objects stride victoriously into the sunset.
The spot is a not-so-subtle dig at the iPhone and its closed ecosystem, and perhaps implies some snobbery among Apple fans. While cute, the ad also brings to the fore an issue that’s troubled kids for generations. Rock could obviously just tear through paper, rendering this whole playground ritual a hollow sham.
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