General Electric Commercial Featuring Agent Smith/Hugo Weaving From "The Matrix"

I just saw it today, a few minutes ago. I think today might be the first day it's aired. I haven't seen it before today. The commercial is selling GE medical software.

It's not the subject of the commercial (medical software) that I find interesting. Medical software is not the focus of this thread.

I find the timing of the commercial and the Red Pill/Blue Pill choice offered at the end of the commercial interesting, what with all the chaos and related conspiracy theories of the past few days. And the media's focus on us nutty conspiracy theorists. At the end of the commercial Agent Smith presents two lollipops, one red and one blue, to a small child and asks "Red, or Blue", mimicking the choice given Neo in the film - Red Pill or Blue Pill.

I don't know what to make of this except to say that I find the timing of the release of this commercial in the midst of the current chaos... interesting.

What do you think?

I found it interesting that they used the words "it APPEARS to be good".

Why do they even need to make a commercial for this? Every day people are not going to buy this equipment. Only hospitals. Why is it targeted towards every day people?

I think it's clever.

If this software can help medical facilities transfer patients faster (paperwork can become stifling), I think that's fantastic. The extra lollipop gag is just that, a gag. Thanks for the video. I enjoyed watching it.

reply to post by Infi8nity


Hospitals are large buyers when it comes to structure and overhead costs. Not all are interconnected by industry-focused newsletters and e-mails. Besides, GE has many products available on the consumer end, and this strengthens the brand in a number of ways psychologically. It's smart marketing, really. Even more amazing is the usage of a character from a movie made 15 years ago that's still somehow relevant. Smith is like Darth Vader in that aspect.

Hugo Weaving, abundantly successful and yet under rated in his career. Always interesting on screen
and one of my more recent favorites. Excellent thread. Cool commercial.

SnF

I loved the end of the commercial especially. red or blue? LOL i like cherry please.

I saw this commercial for the first time last week. Immediately I predicted an ATS thread about it which would postulate its potential secret meaning. Once in a while I'm awesome.

Originally posted by Infi8nity
I found it interesting that they used the words "it APPEARS to be good".

Why do they even need to make a commercial for this? Every day people are not going to buy this equipment. Only hospitals. Why is it targeted towards every day people?

Because Agent Smith, as a computer program/machine/whatever, is supposed to appear to be objective. If he said that it was good, that would be purely subjective and kind of ruin the motif of a computerized opinion. Kind of a short way of saying, "based on all relevant data, this appears to be a good solution". That's my guess.

Good second question. My guess is that GE has been kind of suffering in the PR realm. They were the most often cited company for their tax avoidance strategies that became a publicity nightmare to the extent that their CEO--Jeffrey Immelt--was making defensive statements and then promised that they would pay the full corporate tax for 2012 (they ended up paying an effective tax of 11.5% if I recall correctly). Their old brand motto was "GE--we bring good things to light". They engaged in that advertising campaign after the EPA started screaming about GE's dumping pcb's (iirc again lol) into the Hudson River. Basically, it's a PR campaign. Yes, the common individual isn't going to ever be buying any of this very expensive equipment that GE is creating but they are basically highlighting what positive benefits they bring to society to basically distract from their other issues, which were a PR crisis. Such advertising also attempts to inspire interest and investment by potential shareholders in the company and GE's market performance hasn't been so good, which is kind of funny. GE actually has had steadily increasing earnings over the last several years but you wouldn't think that looking at what is happening with their stock. Part of the very recent nasty drop may have had something to do with last week being hell week. In general though, if you see a big ad campaign by a company that is talking about all the good that they are doing, it's almost always because there's always something out there that has cast them in a negative light.Using a Matrix theme plus Agent Smith = big bucks spent = something smelly out there. lol Hope that answers your question.

Stock price, graphically
Also interesting: www.marketwatch.com...