OnePlus - How Dash Charge Works ft. Emily Ratajkowski - (2017) 2:16 (USA)

Oy vey. When OnePlus launched their Never Settle campaign I thought they meant it, but clearly not when it comes to tired old ad ideas. They've done active lifestyle, they opened a VR mall in space called "The Loop" where you could buy the OnePlus 3... But here OnePlus settled for the oldest pitch in the book; "attractive spokesmodel explains stuff."

You may know Emily Ratajkowski from the "blurred lines" video, she'll remind you of that by doing her little dance at around 1:57, or you know her from posing topless with Kim Kardashian on Instagram. The latter was a move that had Piers Morgan declare feminism dead. It was a PR stunt that generated tons of articles. What you didn't know is that she's "a techfan" as she quips at the start of the Dash-class. And with that word alone, I'm bored already. Despite the cutesy squiggly animations best effort to be engaging, Emily's obvious attractiveness, and a really good ELI5 explanation of how Dash-charging works, this ad is around two minutes too long and tedious. Why on earth is it so long? Oh, because Emily, right? I can picture the audience right now when Emily says "the cable is 300% thicker" giggling like Beavis and responding "so is mine hue-hue-hue-hue." The takeaway I get is that the Dash charging solution is a fresh way of thinking among a sea of phone manufacturers that do the same old thing, while the ad is the old way in a sea of fresh thinking from the other manufacturers. In other words, it looks like a waste of money. The twee synth music makes me want to stab someone, and when did the ugly high water bootcut jeans get dusted off again? I thought we were over this already. Cutesy animations are so 2015 anyway, and the borrowed interest of Emily and her one million Instagram followers feels like a throwback to 2013. Word to the wise OnePlus, please remember "Never Settle" the next time your ad agency shows you ideas like this. You already got in trouble 2014 for the Ladies first idea that veered off track as soon as it became clear women could jump the line based on amount of up-votes on their appearance. That sort of idea got the Sloggi website taken down way back in 2007 already, of course it wouldn't work for phones today.

Client: OnePlus