Adobecards
December 24, 2008 6:13 PM   Subscribe

Adobecards - an aesthetic Flash-based advertisement for a new Adobe product
posted by Blazecock Pileon (29 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Dude, I love ya, but....it's an ad. A propagandistic ad. A confusing propagandistic ad. (Why can I "take what I want" but then you destroy pirates?)
posted by DU at 6:29 PM on December 24, 2008


ummmmmm. ho.lee.shit. that's cool.
posted by gman at 6:30 PM on December 24, 2008


It's just a boring ad that fails to communicate what the product is about. Flash is all about interactivity so I'm surprised that the creators didn't let you interact with the ad as a ways to discover what the product is about.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 6:31 PM on December 24, 2008 [1 favorite]


*I'm heavily medicated, but I really dig it.
posted by gman at 6:34 PM on December 24, 2008


Blue Adobe?
posted by dunkadunc at 6:39 PM on December 24, 2008


Awesome! A more realistic version of solitaire! The world's been waiting for this new product.
posted by fungible at 6:47 PM on December 24, 2008


Now it's waiting for a 30 meg download.
posted by ryanrs at 6:53 PM on December 24, 2008


Adobe's next campaign will feature montages of Battle Chess for no apparent reason.
posted by benzenedream at 7:09 PM on December 24, 2008 [1 favorite]


13,453,400 - Level 14. Beat that bitches!
posted by Manhasset at 7:29 PM on December 24, 2008 [2 favorites]


If Adobe really let me take as much as I wanted, Acrobat would be a compact executable with no toolbar buttons not directly related to viewing the specific file I have open, would have no third party services, no embedded media players, no gotcha licensing agreements, and no DRM enforcement. Updating it would not require shutting down my web browsers and it would not attempt to install toolbars in Office.

I'm sorry, was I supposed to watch something? I got testy waiting for that interminable loading screen to finish so I could watch an advertisement, and decided to come back here and rant instead.
posted by ardgedee at 7:50 PM on December 24, 2008


Lots of unreasonably testy people on the blue tonight, snarking at the slightest provocation, imagined or otherwise. You'd think it was a stressful time of year or something.
posted by illiad at 8:08 PM on December 24, 2008 [1 favorite]


pantone 18-3943
posted by Mick at 8:51 PM on December 24, 2008


Apparently you have to move the slider yourself, and you don't need to wait for the entire download to start. For those of tl;drers out there.
posted by delmoi at 8:56 PM on December 24, 2008


Oh and if you want to know more about the product, at the end you get a link to this page where you can watch a video of a guy with a snooty accent telling you "When I open up CS4, I'm like a kid, playing with his new toys"
posted by delmoi at 9:02 PM on December 24, 2008


Um, that was awesome. I don't care if it was an advertisement. Awesomeness in any form is appreciated by me, and that was freaking awesome. If all advertisements were that cool, then I wouldn't mind watching media. As it stands now, this is just a lone asshole crying in the wilderness, and the collective MeFi mind went "OMG IT'S AN AD! IT'S NOT REAL! IT MUST BE VIRAL.

Cool is as cool does, and you all just wish you were this cool.
posted by Eekacat at 9:33 PM on December 24, 2008


Meh. I was all ready to speak out against the Adobe-hate (sure, they've made some missteps, but Photoshop is one of the greatest apps of all time) and the ad-hate (if something really is cool, who cares if it's an ad?), and then I RTFA'ed.

Yeah. It's just a typical Adobe ad—full of sound and, uh, masterfully executed but bland-as-beige "artistic" imagery, signifying nothing.
posted by greenie2600 at 10:20 PM on December 24, 2008


Take longer to load already.
posted by autodidact at 11:16 PM on December 24, 2008


Sith the sound off, I am left with the impression that Adobe's flagship suite is as stable and solid as a house of cards. Is this what it's trying to convey?
posted by davemee at 11:29 PM on December 24, 2008


Sith, of course, refering to the With. EEE users demand comment editing power (or smaller fingers).
posted by davemee at 11:33 PM on December 24, 2008


That was weird. Also, it was an ad for CS3. Weird.
posted by wemayfreeze at 1:18 AM on December 25, 2008


So CS3 is all about the callous destruction of card houses, right?
posted by DreamerFi at 2:22 AM on December 25, 2008


I am left with the impression that Adobe's flagship suite is as stable and solid as a house of cards. Is this what it's trying to convey?

If you were thinking about all the institutions whose first credit crunch manouver is not to bother upgrading to cs4 - then you'd be bang on.
posted by sgt.serenity at 3:12 AM on December 25, 2008


Dear Adobe,

Please go away.

Yours,
Everyone else.

Crashed my browser (latest Safari, on latest OSX) twice. grumble. grump.
posted by slater at 4:34 AM on December 25, 2008


Well...it was pretty cool, I guess. Until it completely crashed Firefox.
posted by Thorzdad at 7:57 AM on December 25, 2008


An impressive animation, but I don't really see the point of it. That said, I'd like to counter a lot of the Adobe hate by saying that the Creative Suite has made my job, and by extension, my life easier in so many ways. As someone who's been a designer, a prepress tech, an offset dude, and a large-format dude, I've probably saved a few months of work time thanks to CS's ability to automate and streamline my workflow.

And that's how I can post on MetaFilter all damn day. Thanks, Adobe.
posted by Optimus Chyme at 8:13 AM on December 25, 2008


why is adobe advertising cs3 when cs4 just came out tho amirite?
posted by yonation at 9:01 AM on December 25, 2008


Foxit doesn't have annoying load times....or pretentious pointless ad sites.
posted by GavinR at 4:26 PM on December 25, 2008


Is Flash really that 3D now? Does it ship with Swift or something? Really impressive, if automatic-looking effects.
posted by gorgor_balabala at 7:24 PM on December 25, 2008


The first thing we see is the Ace of Spades. The spade seems to become more elaborate as the single card turns into an entire deck -- which quickly fans out to form a bridge leading to a fortress -- a house of cards that assembles itself as we watch. The Queen of Hearts appears and sniffs a flower, as if to emphasize her ease in her current accommodations. An ocean materializes, and a ship bearing the Ace of Spades as its mainsail insignia sweeps into view. Cannons jut out of the broadside and attack the fortress, which is nearly destroyed in the ensuing battle, much to the Queen's consternation.

Suddenly, a jester's head on a spring pops out what's left of the castle, like a giant jack-in-the-box, benevolently smiling as the Queen is sent flying and the castle is utterly destroyed. He ponders the viewer momentarily, then inhales deeply. As he does so, the fabric of the scene is torn apart and is pulled into a dark vortex. The flotsam fades from view, and the single remaining dark shape slows its spin as it grows and at last reveals itself -- the Ace of Spades.

The title sequence reads "Bring fanciful ideas to life."

The jester image was the flagship graphic of CS3, at least on adobe.com. The ace of spades, widely regarded as an evil omen or "death card," becomes a bridge (perhaps a reference to Adobe Bridge, the cornerstone of the Creative Suite package) to a house of cards. The fortress symbolizes the status quo. With another reference to the death card, the flagship appears and begins to blow the fortress to hell -- really nothing more than a courtesy call since the jack-in-the-box jester shows up to destroy the entire universe in the end anyway.

In tarot, the death card symbolizes change. I can't help but come away with the notion that Adobe is trying to tell us that their vision is to destroy the status quo every 18 months with a new upgrade to their Creative Suite.

Fanciful ideas, indeed. I know, GYOB
posted by greensweater at 11:02 PM on December 25, 2008 [1 favorite]


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