Sony Xperia Z5 is "Made for Bond" or Something

Long before the Xperia Z5 family was unveiled, there were rumors of the next flagship Sony smartphone appearing in Spectre, the upcoming James Bond film. With the phones having now been unveiled, Sony Mobile is running an advertisement campaign with the slogan “Made for Bond.”

After the jump, let’s talk about the 1 minute ad which can also be found there.

Besides the Xperia Z5, the ad also features another newly released product from Sony, the RX100 IV camera which offers the world’s first 1-inch stacked sensor. As actress Naomie Harris (Moneypenny) put it, the ad is an

action-packed mini movie in itself.

At the expense of sounding jaded, despite Sony having deep roots in film (which means access to a lot of talented people) put together something that felt tone def or at best, a student film. An ad has one job and one job only – to sell us something. From there, how that’s achieved varies. Some ads are funny while other ads are informative about features which if compelling, will hopefully entice the viewer to purchase the product. That’s to say that ads don’t simply need to be about the product on screen for 95% of the time and through various means can pitch a product.

In this case however, the ad never quite felt like a 007 short film, likely due to the fact that it didn’t feature Bond himself. It never pitched why the phone is great, other than the simply 3 second scene that tries to justify it as a ‘ad’ by showing that the phone can take photos in low light.

Perhaps worse yet, the ad never simply felt exciting to me and that’s perhaps a problem. I am within so many demographics that this ad likely strives to hit. I’m a male in the perfect 25 to 34 age group, I’ve watched every James Bond flick, I’m a tech geek, I love Sony, and I certainly never mind a beautiful actress like Naomie Harris on screen.

Then again, maybe I’m just grumpy today and need a martini – shaken, not stirred, obviously.