Lenovo  – the Chinese electronics giant that bought IBM’s PC division a few years ago recently introduced the ThinkPadW700ds, the world’s first dual screen laptop. Starting at around $3000, it’s not cheap.  The marketing folks at Lenovo decided that a video targeted to the lowest common denominator would be a great way to promote this premium product. I’m sure they developed some really good rationalizations in the process:

“Come on… Sex Sells’
‘It’s a spoof, a parody, a mockumentary – don’t take it too seriously”
“Hey, it’s funny… ish”
“It’s retro – don’t you get it?”
“It’s viral”
“It’s suppose to look cheap”
“Sure it’s tasteless – but it will generate some wicked buzz!!!”
“You just don’t understand, this is what works in marketing 2.0 today”
“It’ll really appeal to young males aged 20 -35 with no social skills”

Of course much in marketing is subjective and what is ‘appropriate’ is open to a wide range of opinions. Appropriate or not, videos like these raise some interesting questions:

Would the owners of billion dollar brands (Apple, Nike, Coke, GE) produce a promotional video like this? … and does that even matter?
Is it ever appropriate to use things that may be questioned by some as being in bad taste?
Is it ever right to risk your brand image on something questionable?
When you perform focus testing and five people out of ten say “I wouldn’t use that,” do you listen to them and give it a pass or do you listen to the other five and soldier on?