These slightly vintage ads from Pioneer and TBWA/Chiat/Day for a line of TV’s called Kuro, are so visually freaky and so filled with confusing (and ominous) promises, one of us swears they gave her the nightsweats.
Leading with the line ‘seeing and hearing like never before’ they take a mash-up of the senses approach, collaging human body parts onto places where they don’t belong. The result is as disturbing as can be.
Our guess is that this ‘unexpected visual approach’ is supposed to make us re-think the old ways we watch and listen to TV. But the problem is immediately apparent in the lack of thought that went into the cliché’d promise in the copy: ‘Go beyond sight. Go beyond sound.’ That’s a tough premise to back up, for sure. What the hell is beyond sight? X-ray sight? No sight? And what’s beyond sound? The vacuum of space? The copy continues with, ‘Enter a world where you look with fresh eyes and listen with new ears.’ How does that work? Are they offering a trade-in on the eyes and ears I’ve already got? The copy completes with, ‘A world where you don’t just see, you feel. You don’t just hear. You touch. You don’t just watch, you truly and fully experience.’
Years ago, the industry toyed with Smell-evision which never worked out. Today, Disney invests millions in 3-D sensory theaters at their theme parks that spray audiences with mists of water when the character on screen sneezes and emit an odor into the room when the dog on screen farts. This is impressive and it’s what comes to mind most when we’re promised a viewing experience that goes beyond hearing and watching.
But, even the aliens-among-us images don’t begin to help us understand how the Kuro might enable us to touch and feel television. If that was possible, we’d love it! And it’d probably be just the shot in the arm that the weary after-hours porn on cable biz could use.
Text would go here relating to the offer