Here’s To Change … of ad direction: full HTC ad now out, and it’s not pretty

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVE1OcfB1E4

HTC’s rebranding campaign, teased a couple of days ago, is not off to a good start … 

The idea is a clever one: have HTC be front of mind by coming up with all kinds of crazy ideas about what the letters could stand for, then create memorable and amusing visuals to represent them. This ad achieves the first, but not the second. It certainly doesn’t look like phase one of a reputed billion-dollar ad campaign.

The ad is symptomatic of HTC: great handsets, not so great company. Here we have a great concept, pretty cringeworthy execution. If they don’t turn this around, those rumors of its planned exit from the smartphone market may turn out to be not quite so exaggerated after all …