For Pioneer, “Word of Mouth” is More Like A Vision

Pioneer’s campaign for its new high-end Kuro includes a black-and-white 30-second spot called "Mouth," where a woman's lips are seen close-up. As she smiles, licks her lips and mockingly bites, the camera pulls back to show the mouth is really the pupil of an eyeball. Print and outdoor ads use similar surrealistic, monochromatic images (a hand where the fingers have ears and a chest with an eye in the middle.)

The new tagline for the home entertainment division is "Seeing and hearing like never before." (The rest of the company, such as sound systems, prefers t the extent "Sound. Vision. Soul.").

Pioneer explains the campaign in this way: Consumers today are overwhelmed by specs and tech jargon. So the company decided to pull away from the tech talk and evoke the emotional dimensions.

In a way, this rationale is not so different from how Philips is playing its new Aurea TV. Either great minds think alike and the TV buyer market has shifted…or the company will shut its “Mouth.”

Go Kuro-osity