Will.I.Am's Video "One More Chance" is a BlackBerry Ad

By Kevin Michaluk on 7 Aug 2008 11:40 am

Wow. Gotta give a thumbs up to RIM's marketing team. I'm sure they were involved with the BlackBerry product placement in this video. Will.I.Am spends about a minute singing it up in front of a BlackBerry ad at a bus stop with Curve in hand. Sweet song and Cool video though - maybe RIM should have hit up Will.I.Am for Bold ringtunes instead of Mr. Copeland.

We shouldn't be totally surprised to see this ad..err.. video though. Think back to March when RIM sorta threw in for Obama when they announced making Dipdive (Will.I.Am's political blog) content available on the BlackBerry. thanks for sending in James!

Topics: Video News & Rumors

Kevin Michaluk 3706 (articles) 3034 (forum posts)

22 comments

robgom Aug 7, 2008 at 11:46 am

Ok, This song has everything you need in terms of Theme, Ringtones, and Alarm notification sounds.....PERFECT!!

Now is there anyway to break this to Stu Copeland gently? Somebody......Anybody..........please.

Kevin Michaluk Aug 7, 2008 at 11:56 am

agreed on that! added a sentence to post to reflect your excellent view point.

Aug 7, 2008 at 11:58 am

I can only dream of a "Product Placement" like that.
Pretty cool.

I wonder if the Bold or Thunder will pop up in some new N*E*R*D video for their 'Seeing Sounds' album... Pharrel is a big CrackBerry addict. He once had a BlackBerry made of gold by the famous jeweler, Jacob (or 'Jakob', not sure), loved by lots of hip hop artists.

tnewton3 Aug 7, 2008 at 12:12 pm

Just because a famous artist is singing in front of a blackberry ad with a curve in his hand doesn't make me want to purchase the blackberry. I get the device because of what it can do not because of who else is buying it and definitely not celebrities.

siha Aug 7, 2008 at 12:23 pm

that's you...however they are trying to reach a consumer audience and if famous people don't have it and the functionality is not of any importance, you will lose a huge demographic of people to things such as the iPhone that have that WOW factor...it's no longer about the capabilities of the blackberry, it's about who RIM wants to buy the blackberry now...which i think has driven them to make better phones

BBAddict0523 Aug 7, 2008 at 7:13 pm

Well he wasn't just singing in front of the ad. He ripped the blackberry out, turned it around and started talking. TMo did a great job. They made sure you got a good look at the latest addition to their curve line up, the sunset. You may not be persuaded to buy the phone because of the artist but millions of younger people will or people who look up to these artists or type of music, regardless of age.

Brandn | Fortyoneacres Aug 7, 2008 at 12:31 pm

This is also a t-mobile ad...becasue regular blackberrys (or blackberries) have a myfaves display. That's also the new t-mobile edition blackberry curve in sunset (red).

This would make it the second (i believe) t-mobile/blackberry ad...the first would be a Gwen Stefani song in which the pale gold blackberry curve was highlighted...

Anonymous Aug 7, 2008 at 1:49 pm

good catch sir. I was posting just to say that very observation. I don't by anything, especially electronics, just because a star has one. None the less, I could not help but grin when I immediately noticed the Sunset Curve on the video and looked merrily at the Sunset Curve I picked up a couple of days ago.
Hot Damn, ya boy must be in the hip and in crowd now!

Anonymous Aug 7, 2008 at 1:02 pm

I agree, the Copeland stuff is not very exciting or appealing. But I wonder why they wouldn’t have used the Bold for this video.

MiniBB Aug 7, 2008 at 2:02 pm

Video has two of my favorite things -
a BlackBerry and a Mini Cooper.
Would be better if the Mini was a yellow one!

Anonymous Aug 7, 2008 at 2:30 pm

Bump the blackberry....I would gladly give it up for that beautiful woman lol

Anonymous Aug 7, 2008 at 3:02 pm

Blackberry really needs to think before they put there products in videos like this. It could really backfire and turn many people off such as myself. I don't want another hiphop trend phone, and any video that has swears in it really brings everything including the blackberry down a whole level. I would expect this from iphone but not the sophisticated gadget that a blackberry is.

Anonymous Aug 10, 2008 at 7:46 pm

One Wil-i-am is as mainstream pop as mainstream pop can get. He produces many pop acts. If it were 50 cent as a walking advertisement for it, then ok i get your displeasur I bet if it were his blackeyed pea bandmate Fergie, you would not have the same complaint.

Anonymous Aug 7, 2008 at 3:12 pm

who CARES if you dont want your phone to be popular / in a video (pop culture). If you're not into this artists chances are you would have never seen this video anyway if it werent for blackberry.

All phones nowadays HAVE to be "hip" to some degree. Sure you have straight business ppl that will definitely buy the product. RIM knows they have that market. Why would a company NOT expand and try to increase their market? Tweens and Teens and even young adults are a huge demographic that RIM totally missed out on but now I know my little sister and all her friends are starting to want one.

This is a good thing. It gives RIM more money and will allow them to make even better phones. I'm all for it. Haha your comments remind me of some fan of a really indie band that makes it big and everyone calls them sell outs / losers. Its like some people only like products if they're not very successful. What a crappy perspective.

robgom Aug 7, 2008 at 3:15 pm

well said.

BBAddict0523 Aug 7, 2008 at 9:31 pm

I could not have said it better myself...