Skip to main content

The context you need, when you need it

When news breaks, you need to understand what actually matters — and what to do about it. At Vox, our mission to help you make sense of the world has never been more vital. But we can’t do it on our own.

We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. Will you support our work and become a Vox Member today?

Join now

Twitter’s TV Commercial Is Just Like Twitter: Full of Content That’s a Little Hard to Follow

And that’s not a good thing.

Screen shot by Re/code

Twitter has a new television commercial that perfectly sums up Twitter. The problem is, that might also mean few regular people will understand it.

For the past two nights, Twitter has paid big bucks for 30-second spots during the World Series on Fox, a chance to show off its new multimedia feature, Moments, to a massive, American audience. It’s a rare move for Twitter, which does not advertise often on TV. But its user growth has started to flatten, and CEO Jack Dorsey said it needs to simplify its product to get it into the hands of new, mainstream users.

Sounds like the kind of problem a new national advertising campaign is meant to handle! The problem? The ad, which you can watch below, is just like Twitter: Full of images, clips and text that may be hard for non-Twitter users to parse.

The spot itself, dubbed “Post Season,” features baseball content pulled directly from Twitter. It screams “We have cool content,” but then throws that content in a blender before tossing it against the wall. Your eyes can barely keep up. Each clip includes actual text from user tweets, but the commercial jumps so quickly from tweet to tweet that you can’t read any of it.

If you’re a Twitter regular, you probably felt right at home. This is, after all, what Twitter is: A hodgepodge of multimedia content that doesn’t always quite fit together, but still keeps you entertained. If you aren’t a Twitter user — the audience this kind of commercial was presumably meant to attract — you probably had no idea what was going on.

A lot of people thought the same. And, of course, they took to Twitter to complain about Twitter’s commercial. Here’s a sampling of the armchair analysis.

You still have to give Twitter credit for making a bold ad move. And perhaps this was just Twitter’s first step, catching people’s attention with flashy but relevant sports content. The second commercial — if there is a second one — will likely simplify things for non-Twitter users everywhere. But for now, Twitter has nailed an ad for people who already use its product. Which, when you’re a company desperate to grow, doesn’t do you much good.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

More in Technology

Podcasts
Are humanoid robots all hype?Are humanoid robots all hype?
Podcast
Podcasts

AI is making them better — but they’re not going to be doing your chores anytime soon.

By Avishay Artsy and Sean Rameswaram
Future Perfect
The old tech that could help stop the next airborne pandemicThe old tech that could help stop the next airborne pandemic
Future Perfect

Glycol vapors, explained.

By Shayna Korol
Future Perfect
Elon Musk could lose his case against OpenAI — and still get what he wantsElon Musk could lose his case against OpenAI — and still get what he wants
Future Perfect

It’s not about who wins. It’s about the dirty laundry you air along the way.

By Sara Herschander
Life
Why banning kids from AI isn’t the answerWhy banning kids from AI isn’t the answer
Life

What kids really need in the age of artificial intelligence.

By Anna North
Culture
Anthropic owes authors $1.5B for pirating work — but the claims process is a Kafkaesque messAnthropic owes authors $1.5B for pirating work — but the claims process is a Kafkaesque mess
Culture

“Your AI monster ate all our work. Now you’re trying to pay us off with this piece of garbage that doesn’t work.”

By Constance Grady
Future Perfect
Some deaf children are hearing again because of a new gene therapySome deaf children are hearing again because of a new gene therapy
Future Perfect

A medical field that almost died is quietly fixing one disease at a time.

By Bryan Walsh