smaller then a domino!

October 2, 2005 10:58 PM

The hard drive is the new bling.
posted by delmoi (60 comments total)

My laptop hard drive just died. I'm gonna wear it around my neck now, see how the ladies go for it. I'll report back.
posted by Space Coyote at 11:01 PM on October 2, 2005

I guess I don't know a single thing about inner urban black american culture. But I do know that that was terrible.
posted by wilful at 11:08 PM on October 2, 2005

I don't think the creators of that animation knew a single thing about inner urban black american culture either.
posted by Falconetti at 11:10 PM on October 2, 2005

Ouch.
posted by muppetboy at 11:14 PM on October 2, 2005

i stopped it when ali g showed up

with his boombox
posted by tsarfan at 11:14 PM on October 2, 2005

Yo...that's (not so) dope...or whatever the fresh phrase was back in the day when this might have seemed the slightest bit hip.
posted by tdstone at 11:14 PM on October 2, 2005

I would furthermore hypothesize that members of inner urban black american culture would think it was terrible.
posted by lalochezia at 11:16 PM on October 2, 2005

Stupid white people.
posted by Speck at 11:17 PM on October 2, 2005

who cares.... i just want it to be acceptable socially for me to wear my hud and get a video dump of the outside world from a web cam....

and then add on an infared camera

and then a one handed keyboard + mouse

who rocks the party like my bling?
posted by sourbrew at 11:25 PM on October 2, 2005

It's obvious your harddrive cares about black people.
posted by sebas at 11:30 PM on October 2, 2005

That was painful.
posted by runningdogofcapitalism at 11:38 PM on October 2, 2005

I want reparations for having to watch that.
posted by ColdChef at 11:51 PM on October 2, 2005

As Noel Coward once said, "Are you fucking kidding me?"
posted by gramschmidt at 12:09 AM on October 3, 2005

She has things "on [her] mp3"? Sometimes synecdoche sucks.
posted by gramschmidt at 12:12 AM on October 3, 2005

Feh. For reasons of power consumption and durability the coming wave of higher-capacity RAM will beat out HD's in mobile devices, no matter how desperately Hitachi tries to spin it.

And on top of that, the ad was terrible.

Now, if they could make a spinner HD, where you could see the mechanism (with everything but the platter silver-plated and iced out) they might have something.
posted by sfslim at 12:22 AM on October 3, 2005

One day our children will watch this stuff and never stop laughing at us. So be prepared.
posted by allen.spaulding at 12:37 AM on October 3, 2005

I don't know guys, I think it was kind of cool.
HA! Holy Christ that sucked some serious ass.

Absolute nonsense.

Who got paid to write that shithole-commerce song?
Who got paid to sing it?

WhawhaWHA?
posted by punkbitch at 12:41 AM on October 3, 2005

sfslim, google for "hard drive mod". A number of people have opened their HD cases to add a window and interior lighting. Yikes!
posted by hattifattener at 12:50 AM on October 3, 2005

do cell phones with hard drives even exist?
posted by beno at 1:05 AM on October 3, 2005

Previously from Hitatchi: Get perpendicular (link to Flash animation with sound). Discussed here and here.
posted by iviken at 1:35 AM on October 3, 2005

Sorry, bad link. This one works.
posted by iviken at 1:36 AM on October 3, 2005

My intelligence is so insulted by that whatever that was, I shall endeavor from this day forth to refrain from purchasing any Hitachi products of any type. *shudder*
posted by Dreama at 1:38 AM on October 3, 2005

I love mah nigga but nigga please !
posted by elpapacito at 1:49 AM on October 3, 2005

I wonder if these people (who, after a bit of sniffing, appear to look after Hitachi's PR and advertising) are responsible. It's either a stroke of genius or a happy accident that their terrible cartoons are reaching communities of tech-savvy people. Either way, the publicity seems to be reaching its audience.
posted by Kiell at 1:59 AM on October 3, 2005

Blingu HD o hitotsu onegaishimasu!

I was filled with unbridled horror at what Hitachi has come up with this time....i nearly threw my ipod out the window.
posted by rawfishy at 2:34 AM on October 3, 2005

That was awesome. Why do white liberals find (tacky) marketing to a black audience so offensive?
posted by teppic at 3:16 AM on October 3, 2005

"In the nation of bling, I'm the first lady."

Ouch. Hilarious. It's not so much the ad that's funny as the fact that blithely out-of-touch marketing people created it.
posted by Succa at 4:22 AM on October 3, 2005

Why do you say blithely out-of-touch? Are you implying that the people who made this are white people with a naive view of black culture?
posted by teppic at 4:45 AM on October 3, 2005

You're saying only white people can be out of touch?
posted by IronLizard at 5:07 AM on October 3, 2005

What
the
fuck
Hitachi?
posted by grouse at 5:18 AM on October 3, 2005

IronLizard: Are you saying that the add is out of touch?
posted by teppic at 5:32 AM on October 3, 2005

Wow. How igry.

All I can think of, is the recording studio where this went down...the performer(s) trying to do a good job for the money.
posted by filmgeek at 5:37 AM on October 3, 2005

* head explodes *
posted by ZenMasterThis at 5:40 AM on October 3, 2005

"The hard drive is the new bling" -- this came across like a failed attempt at enlightened self-parody. Ironic detachment will eat itself.
posted by alumshubby at 5:41 AM on October 3, 2005

1. Yes, yes, y'all.
To the beat, y'all.
2. Raise your hands in the air
and wave 'em like ya just don't care.
3. Goin' on and on and on and on,
I'm like hot butter on, say what?, da popcorn.

See, there're plenty of circa-1979 rap clichés that the teeth-grindingly gormless writer of this piece did not deign to employ.

Nice flow on the "rap" too; like listening to the automated telephone time.

If only they'd used Bernard Edwards' bassline from "Good Times"...
posted by the sobsister at 5:59 AM on October 3, 2005

I love how she points at them repeatedly with her index and pinky fingers. It's so rad! I'm going to do this from now on.
posted by fungible at 6:04 AM on October 3, 2005

Yo, word to the motherboard b.
posted by Skygazer at 6:21 AM on October 3, 2005

Maybe I'm out of touch.
posted by IronLizard at 6:27 AM on October 3, 2005

I, for one, welcome our new marketing overlords.
posted by vagus at 6:40 AM on October 3, 2005

"Now, if they could make a spinner HD, where you could see the mechanism (with everything but the platter silver-plated and iced out) they might have something."

I've seen some amazing mods, and thought along these lines as well.

Get perpendicular, BTW, shows the animator's inspiration in the School House Rock vein. Also how excited the guys in Hitachi Devo suits probably are about this breakthrough.
posted by Busithoth at 6:53 AM on October 3, 2005

I just want to point out that this ad had nothing to do with rednecks, hillbillies or "red state" denizens of any "persuasion", that I watched it without sound for about 13 seconds, and that I wonder how the Golden Gate Bridge got to the Lower Haight.

Lighten up guys, commercials are SUPPOSED to be stupid. How else would you remember them?
posted by davy at 7:04 AM on October 3, 2005

teppic- I don't think anyone's calling it offensive (other than to one's sense of "quality") so much as just terrible. It evokes the same kind of reaction as the company talent show, when you see some middle-aged, button-down exec trying to act hip.

Are you implying that the people who made this are white people with a naive view of black culture?

I'm going to explicitly, and in no-uncertain terms, assert that this ad was almost definitely made by white people with a naive view of black urban culture.
posted by mkultra at 7:12 AM on October 3, 2005

Of course, the Hitachi execs, likely Japanese, who green-lighted this abomination have to take some of the credit also.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 7:48 AM on October 3, 2005

mine eyes!
posted by Hands of Manos at 7:49 AM on October 3, 2005

ZenMasterThis: Indeed. Fo shizzle, bredren.
posted by Kiell at 8:18 AM on October 3, 2005

If this was some sort of a stealth spam posting, it obviously failed miserably.
posted by birdhaus at 8:38 AM on October 3, 2005

Official bling up for grabs!! Whooheewoo! Only have to complete this survey.
posted by cleverusername at 8:46 AM on October 3, 2005

Oh, sweet! I've entered.
posted by MrMoonPie at 10:41 AM on October 3, 2005

This hard drive, it vibrat....nah. Not going there.

No hydrolic shocks?
posted by Smedleyman at 10:55 AM on October 3, 2005

Been on Memepool for weeks.
posted by Max Power at 1:30 PM on October 3, 2005

Delmoi, no apologies for not including the obligatory warning "Beware, silly music ahead"? May your speakers haunt you in the night.
posted by Laotic at 1:41 PM on October 3, 2005

Been on Memepool for weeks.

Yes, and with the same front page post.
posted by Pollomacho at 1:53 PM on October 3, 2005

Subaru is the new Punk Rock!
posted by idontlikewords at 3:28 PM on October 3, 2005

I present Exhibit A -
Why I hate marketing.

I rest my case.
posted by fluffycreature at 4:06 PM on October 3, 2005

Dan Meth's awesome ad for Kosher.com will make everything alright.
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 5:55 PM on October 3, 2005

Now I'm jonesing for Burger King Germany's"Pimp my Burger" all over again. (Now THATwas good, any way U slice it) but I cant get to it any more. Boo hooo ... passworded... WTF!!??
posted by celerystick at 6:21 PM on October 3, 2005

Oh my. Well, wasn't that gawd-awful?
posted by dejah420 at 6:46 PM on October 3, 2005

...the worst shit i've ever seen or heard outside of a trade-show floor. no doubt that is what this offal was constructed for.
posted by nj_subgenius at 7:11 PM on October 3, 2005

Wake me when wet & live electric sockets are the new Bling.
posted by HTuttle at 10:50 PM on October 3, 2005

no wonder they had a huge layoff a few months ago.
posted by grafholic at 3:45 PM on October 4, 2005