Introducing the Smartphone™
Our goal as a brand has always been to start conversations, which requires us to get our ideas out there. Being that we are a company with a product for sale, that means advertising, but this is something fundamentally feels wrong to us as artists. Is advertising, and therefore keeping you engaged as long as possible, not the core business model for pretty much everything on the smartphone? How do we share our project without being another corporation trying to sell you something?
We’ve been really lucky with organic press and this is how we initially got our Kickstarter campaign off the ground. Some publications even let us create our own content to support the article.
This was from an animation was for a Sweet article that was only visible on smartphones. The video filled the entire screen vertically which we thought was a great opportunity to poke fun at the very object the Light Phone challenges.
Organic press, of course, could only go so far. How could we continue to share our ideas without feeling hypocritical? This is how our flyer campaign began.
We made a variety of flyers, little illustrations that touch upon different aspects of our over-connectedness from someone trapped in a scroll hole to a break up letter with the internet, and each flyer had a silly URL like “avoidthehole.com” or “ineedmore.me”. We didn’t put the word “light” or any hint about the Light Phone, and if someone were to go to one of the weird URLs it would bring them to a white page with our manifesto hand written ending with “much love, Light” as the only real branded moment.
We wanted to present our ideas, the flyers and manifesto, without a product immediately associated with it; to bring out the curiosity as to “who put this here?” So often when we see a product and price tag we immediately start trying to rationalize the purchase, whether or not we want it, instead of fully listening to the bigger idea we are trying to promote; the larger conversation about the direction of technology and accountability in the companies that are taking us there. The Light Phone is not for everyone of course, but we think general awareness of the role technology plays and the intentions behind the products we use everyday is important and valuable to any smartphone user.
One day I got an email from Dan Fox, a local comedian from Williamsburg. Dan has been talking about the smartphone addiction through a variety of mediums—songs, skits, a musical, music videos, a presentation at UCB, and a children’s book called ‘Hey Zoey! Get Off Your Phone!(live on Kickstarter now!). We hung out and enjoyed talking at lengths about all things life and over the course of a few months had become quite good friends. We wanted to find a project that we could collaborate on, and that is how the flyer campaign evolved into these smartphone infomercials.
Introducingthesmartphone.com is a satirical web series that points out the less desirable, but very real, aspects of smartphones that the device makers will obviously never advertise.
A special thanks to Jos, Santiago and Mitch for helping produce, shoot and finalize the project. As always, working with friends is best. Here’s some photographs from the process.
