MasterBerry

BlackBerry is trying to shake things up. I give them kudos for seeing the writing on the metaphorical Facebook wall for smartphones. It appears BlackBerry is trying to break out of the enterprise shell and show the general public that BlackBerry phones are fun for the whole family.

Enter their new TV campaign. I really liked the first one I saw—when I thought it was a MasterCard commercial. It wasn't until BlackBerry's word mark appeared in the last few frames that I realized it wasn't a MasterCard spot.

I thought those shades of yellow and orange were pretty well locked down on the ol' corporate logo front. BlackBerry thought differently I guess. Check out the two spots below. The first is the new BlackBerry effort and the second an older MasterCard spot.





I went from responding positively to the BlackBerry spot to being kind of ticked-off. I felt tricked. And now that I know it's a BlackBerry spot ripping off MasterCard's logo it makes me even more pissed.

All you need is love? I disagree. You could start with an original concept and a branding effort that doesn't latch on to an existing brand like a lamprey.