Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V) is at it again. The Finnish company is loosely targeting fans of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) products, this time with a cartoon via its Twitter account. The cartoon makes fun of an Apple commercial which focuses on the use of a smartphone during the holiday season.
Apple users too absorbed, or just misunderstood?
The cartoon targets the commercial which features a teenage boy who appears to be just ignoring his family and paying more attention to his smartphone during the holiday season. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s message in the advertisement is that the teenager is using the smartphone to document the holiday and then put together a video which is so moving that his mother and grandmother begin to cry (supposedly tears of joy, but maybe they were just upset that he watched everything through a smartphone lens instead of his actual eyes). The ad is entitled “Misunderstood.”
What Nokia thinks about smartphones
Although Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V) currently still sells smartphones, the company is in the process of getting out of that business. It will sell its devices division to Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) early in 2014. Nonetheless, the message behind this latest cartoon and also another ad we saw recently is clear. The company wants people to get their noses out of their smartphones and spend more time interacting with each other.
Nokia’s cartoon features images of life before smartphones and life after smartphones. The view in all of the after images is of the user’s legs and / or feet, while the view in all of the others is of people getting active and having fun in the great outdoors. Clearly, Nokia wants people to go outside for a change and be active rather than just sitting around with their noses in some sort of gadget.
Nokia features outdoor use
In another recent advertisement, Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V) again poked fun of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), showcasing how the Lumia 2520 tablet can be used in bright sunlight, but the iPad can’t. Once again, we have people with their noses in an electronic device; this time it’s a tablet, and they’re trying to use it outside.
One iPad user brings her tablet to the park when she supposedly is planning to play with her dog, the Lumia tablet user manages to convince the dog to come over to him—just because he’s in the sunlight rather than the shade. And wouldn’t you know it, the Lumia owner actually plays with the dog while using his tablet and then coaxes all the sheepish iPad users out into the sunlight en masse to enjoy the great outdoors instead of hovering in the shade and ignoring everyone around them. Does anyone else see a theme here?