I came home from a party with some friends last night less than an hour ago.  I walked in and took a quick look at the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle, only to see a gigantic advertisement for Google’s DROID phone.  And the campaign is only getting bigger.

I was watching the MLB World Series each night, simply because it’s an end of the season game between two teams, and that’s always fun to watch.  As I was watching I saw a peculiar advertisement.  A group of fighter jets in formation, that began to drop these enclosed balls down towards earth.  People on the surface of the planet began to watch as they touched down.  Two cowboys began to walk up to one, as it opened up to reveal the DROID phone.  Shortly thereafter, the text “Drop date: 11-06-09″ appeared on the screen, followed by the Google and Verison Wireless logos.  Each pane must’ve been on the screen for less than a second, just barely enough for the human mind to process.  Below is the ad as shown during the World Series.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9fXYQjwR0w

As for this morning, I was simply amazed at what Google had done to put the word out on the phone.  There was a large chunk of text on the inside portion of the ad, four page into the newspaper, which really puts things straight:

This is a world of “nope.” “Nuh-uh.” And “sorry, Charlie.”

A world of smiling denial. Petty tyrannies that have made their way into our cell phones. Into the very way we choose to speak to another human being. There are dozens of doesn’ts. Doesn’t allow customization. Doesn’t run multiple apps. Doesn’t allow you to swap out batteries. Doesn’t allow open development. These arrogant little devices are barely worth more than the pocket lint they rest upon. Because now there’s a phone so smart. So strong. So subservient to its user, it refuses to include “doesn’t” in its dictionary app.

Demo it. Ogle it. Own it.

Visit DROID Nation to experience t for yourself. Today at Justin Herman Plaza. Or visit any Verizon Wireless communications store to find out more.

In a world of doesn’t.

DROID DOES.

Justin Herman Plaza?  That’s right outside the San Francisco Ferry Building, and on the night where I did take the ferry back home from the city I saw that demo center, closed down because it was 7pm.  It was a small demo center, probably could hold 10 demo phones depending on how it was set up.  There’s demo centers like these all around metropolitan cities in America, the biggest being Times Square.

According to the DROID website, “DROID does Times Square.”  The square is covered with DROID advertisements, and there’s one that is giving people an opportunity to call in from their cell phone and search like DROID.  Using just their voice, they can say what they want to look for on Google Maps, and on the big jumbo screen advertisement, the last four digits of their number will appear, as well as a general map of their results.

Verizon and Google are going all out.  The World Series, four entire newspaper pages, demo centers, and huge ads in Times Square?  This is direct and absolute competition with the iPhone, although none of their ads mention the iPhone at all, and talk mostly about “compromise” and that all other phones are a bunch of “doesn’t”, whereas DROID can do anything.  But is it worth all the hype?

I’m going to stop by the demo center at Justin Herman Plaza sometime this week after school, and I’ll be there to let you know how this new DROID phone really does next to a jailbroken iPod touch.  A full review and comparative review will be up later this week.

Oh, and if you were wondering, no, you can’t search Apple Store in Times Square, however Verizon Wireless worked perfectly well:

Links:

DROID’s website: http://phones.verizonwireless.com/motorola/droid/#/home
DROID does Times Square: http://phones.verizonwireless.com/motorola/droid/#/times_square
Hi-res version of Drop Date DROID commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oboklt7rW0o