The Method
Magazine Ad: Geek Squad, from Rolling Stone Magazine, 10 Jan 08
The Method
Repetitions:
- “wireless awareness” cord (2)
- Wireless (3)
- Laptop (2)
- Tentacles (2)
- Robo- or robotic (2)
- Giant (3)
Strands:
- Home/house/couch
- Octopus/tentacles/creature/sea beast
- Robotic/digital
- Sharing/recording/printing
Binary Oppositions
- Robo/octopus
- Invisible/tentacles
- Robotic/sea beast
- Brief/conversation
- Digital/creature
- Laptop/all-knowing
The most telling binary opposition in the Geek Squad advertisement is a repeated, hyperbolic simile that compares technology to some sort of enormous, robotic behemoth that they promise to tame. A wireless network is compared to a “giant robo-octopus” with “invisible tentacles.” Along the same vein, a laptop is a “digital creature” akin to a “giant robotic sea beast.” Why would Geek Squad use such exaggerations? They come across not as knowledgeable computer technicians, but rather as a cross between Captain Ahab and Crocodile Dundee. However, the use of unchecked overstatement has a purpose. At some level it is meant to scare your Average Joe computer user. Small technical problems are now acts of the robo-octopus’ giant tentacles, solvable only by a hero astride a black-and-white VW Beetle. Along with embellishing the maliciousness of technology, Geek Squad makes big promises. Customers will have an “all-knowing” laptop that will obey their every command, promising to keep them in “awe.” It’s not that Geek Squad wants you to become a Luddite to escape the Godzilla of your wireless internet; they want to rescue you from the perils of your own ignorance. The ad’s picture shows this to be true: the Prince rescues Rapunzel in her brick prison, while keeping a watchful eye to guard against her wireless network.
