Lenovo Olympic TV Commercials
The Olympic Games begin today and as I’m sure many of you know, Lenovo is a top sponsor of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Our Internet Lounges recently opened in the Athlete Villages and we’ve been testing our massive technology infrastructure setup in Beijing. You can even find the blogs of 100 athletes on our Voices of the Olympic Games website, where we’ve helped equip and support athletes in order to share their voices in the first Olympics where blogging is allowed during the competition time period. Of course, how can I forget our Olympic Podium where any and all Olympic info can be found and customized.Those watching the Olympics will also see a number of new, unique, and creative Lenovo TV commercials. Given we don’t run TV commercials often, I wanted to get the opinions of our community on here. I’ve embedded the videos below and put a poll below them. Please vote in the poll for your favorite commercial and share your thoughts in the comments!
Be sure to check out the bonus video just added (8/22) at the bottom.
Tim Supples
Edit: Got a special behind the scenes look on the set of the Sumo commercial for our loyal blog readers. Enjoy
Lenovo Meet the Modder Dean Liou
Lenovo Meet the modder- Chris Blarsky Dairy 2
Lenovo Meet the modder- Chris Blarsky Dairy 1
Lenovo H320 desktop
August 8th, 2008 4:32 pm
Troll is annoying, the guy with the laser laptop is annoying, the man with the beard … I’m neutral on.
The Sumo however, it was suspenseful. The fact that they ran and took off like that in the air was not expected, at all.
Which is why I voted for it, because I’ll remember it tomorrow.
August 8th, 2008 5:57 pm
I hesitate between Sumo and Castaway. I choose Sumo but Castaway is good as well. So, in my mind, 1/ Sumo, 2/ Castaway, 3/Troll and the last 4/ Laser (SL series is not a Thinkpad)
August 8th, 2008 11:11 pm
In Australia, Lenovo also have another commercial regarding Olympic.
August 9th, 2008 3:36 am
I saw “Sumo” during the opening ceremonies and I’m really disappointed that your agency didn’t put some more effort into tying the games into your ads. Lenovo put so much time/money/effort into sponsoring the games and I think its really blown an opportunity here.
http://www.notebooks.com/2008/08/09/lenovos/
August 9th, 2008 4:09 am
[...] YouTube vids via Lenovo Blogs [...]
August 9th, 2008 12:36 pm
@wjli2 Yes, Bill Bolton posted the YouTube link to it at TPF earlier today.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=dYTRA-_p4Lk
August 9th, 2008 11:23 pm
Troll was a friggin’ riot !
Not quite FedEx funny, but a nice set of ads by Lenovo.
August 10th, 2008 9:15 am
The one with the troll was funny in a Family Guy kinda way, not really my thing, but sort of amusing.
I thought the one with the laser was downright hilarious and actually made me laugh out loud.
The one with the face-id was alright, but didn’t do much for me.
Like someone said, the Sumo clip was unexpected and will probably be remembered well.
August 10th, 2008 8:39 pm
They’re okay, but they could be better. The previous one’s (warewolf, rollcage, virus, epic battery) were really good and I had hoped to see more of those. Although the Libby Trickett ad was pretty sweet.
August 11th, 2008 10:30 am
The Sumo commercial was the BEST!!!! It is memorable and fits in with the Olympics……..perfect!
Also, I do 3D Scenecasting through an application on Facebook and this commercial stuck with me so much I ended up doing a scene on it through SceneCaster. Check it out! http://apps.new.facebook.com/s.....1000047290
August 11th, 2008 6:43 pm
I think that the Castaway commercial has been very well produced, and the Castaway ad is a commercial that demonstrates new technology in an epic and useful situation, which is the key story recipe for all successful technology commercials.
August 12th, 2008 3:23 am
This is the first time i have seen so many ads filmed by Lenovo, i guess with couple hundreds of millions USD poured into Beijing Olympic this comes as no surprise.
August 12th, 2008 9:01 am
I LIKE THE TROLL
August 12th, 2008 12:35 pm
I cracked up when the troll popped in. We need more commercials like that to make us laugh. This world is way to serious, with not enough laughter. I did like the castaway, but there wasn’t enough humor. The sumo wrestlers were way to serious. Like I said we need the funny commercials. Trolls, fairies, gnomes & animals are funny.
August 12th, 2008 6:00 pm
I don’t get it!
I find the Lenovo Olympics commericals to be the worst of the bunch.
The “Troll” is simply bizarre and annoying. Fire the ad agency.
The “Sumo” ad is clever and visually interesting, but what do Japanese SUMO wrestlers have to do with Chinese company and a Beijing based Olympics. In case we forgot, China and Japan are two different countries.
August 12th, 2008 9:44 pm
The Troll was the best commercial it very amusing and my children loved it. the sumo wresters brought back bad memories of 9/11 when they turned into the plane in the city, the rest were ok.
August 12th, 2008 11:24 pm
I like the one where Lenovo decided to create some Olympic commercials instead of functioning e-commerce website.
http://www.engadget.com/2008/0.....ove-along/
August 14th, 2008 2:38 pm
I think all of these ads would go down a treat in the UK.
It sure beats the boring Dell/HP ads.
August 14th, 2008 4:37 pm
I voted for the Sumo commercial, BUT my wife and I were watching the olympics last night when it came on, and I asked her what she thought it was a commercial for before they got to the tag line. She guessed an airline.
A commercial can be very clever, but if consumers don’t connect the ad with the product, it’s money down the drain.
August 15th, 2008 1:45 am
the sumo thingy was simply amazing good job lenovo!that the x300 series is loaded with goodies truely shows the might of the “light” notebook
August 15th, 2008 11:50 am
The troll was awsome. Very funny.
August 15th, 2008 6:25 pm
I cannot get enough of the Troll…..He makes the whole commercial!
I have not seen this on TV yet, but I watch it everyday on Youtube.
Go Troll! You rock!
August 19th, 2008 1:12 am
Hey Lenovo,
Thanks for the laugh!! The Castaway is my long-lost friend, Jason. Please tell him to get in touch. Thanks!
August 19th, 2008 3:13 am
I liked Castaway!
August 20th, 2008 7:17 am
I vote Sumo and Lenovo. Go Lenovo!!!!
August 20th, 2008 8:25 am
I think they were all terrible – not funny, not interesting, not provokative and certainly not something that is going to make me buy a Lenovo computer.
August 20th, 2008 10:02 am
I liked the lazer commercial the best. It is my #1 choice. It clearly reveals the difference betweem Lenovo’s no fuss no muss push of a button recovery and others with gimmicks. The Sumo commercial is my last choice, although entertaining, it was a bit confusing. I had no idea what the commercial was about until I watched it at least 5 times. Maybe I have a short attention span but for some reason by the time it got to telling you about Lenovo, I was shutdown and never heard a thing. The drama and excitement was gone after the plane took off and therefore, there was no more reason to look or listen.
August 20th, 2008 7:19 pm
The SUMO ad was the best. I was just amazed. And I laughed when the ‘landing gear’ retracted. Very creative. It didn’t insult my intelligence. Maybe you should have incorporated your computers into it somehow…you figure it out!
August 21st, 2008 1:02 pm
[...] YouTube vids via Lenovo Blogs [...]
August 21st, 2008 2:28 pm
Are you kidding me? A midget? To sell sophisticated technology? Have the people at Lenovo lost their minds? Not only aren’t these commercials funny, they’re mildly offensive to the intellect. Convoluted in their attempt to make points about the product. The people who made these are morons and obviously have no sense of comedy.
August 22nd, 2008 10:31 am
for your so called sophisticated technology you wouldnt have called this man a midget considering he is a dwarf, daaaaaaaaaaa and also for your information they have just as much brain as any other normal sized person or midget, so when you decide to insult someone know what you are talking about first. I think this is a brilliant commercial and they should keep up the good work.
August 28th, 2008 8:21 pm
I would like to know something. WHY, can’t we see in Lenovovision weightless, crash test, videos ?????
It is really strange…
You put old videos “Thinkpad legends”, who are great videos, you do new videos, sumo, troll, who are….videos, but you don’t keep great videos who impressionnate all the world.
Lenovo is becoming really an strange firm….
I want an answer !
September 2nd, 2008 9:00 pm
I didn’t love any of them, though I cracked up everytime I saw the Sumo Wrestler one.
I’m curious, does the US Ad Agency that put this together know that Sumo is actually Shinto/Japanese, not Chinese?
This a case of all Asian people looking the same or something? Do a little research next time.
September 4th, 2008 8:19 am
Bradley,
I’m sure they understand that Sumo are not Chinese in origin. This is not a case of racial stereotyping.
I think the audience is expected to be drawn into (especially in the extended version of the commercial) the suspense of where all these sumo are going as they disembark the busses and merge together into the colosal march down the street. The punchline is the unexpected twist as they become lighter than air and take flight.
Something iconic and massive is required as a subject to pull this off and be humorous. I suppose the agency could have used elephants or something else, but I think the sumo were a good choice.
Mark
December 11th, 2008 12:21 pm
Four words: Ooo ha, Ooo ha