Sex Sells: Color Hopes You’ll Want to Broadcast Your Makeout Sessions and Illegal Pool Parties to Facebook
Color – just saying the name of it quickly became enough to get people to laugh about what was, without doubt, one of the most botched product launches in recent history (or riled up about the enormous funding round the startup got before it had even launched its product). The relaunch of the once photo-sharing focused app didn't result in much hype at the end of the year, but it looks like the company is now trying hard to get some attention for its video-sharing focused relaunch.
A new ad, which the company uploaded to its YouTube account last week, wouldn't look out of place on MTV. A group of hip 20-somethings decides to break into an empty house and have a little pool party. The ad also features a steamy makeout session in the pool, as well as a creepy guy who decides to use Color to broadcast everything to Facebook (without sound, of course, because Color doesn't do audio).
If that isn't a reason for using Color, I'm not sure what is. As AdAge notes, few startups have enough money to spend on a highly produced commercial. The ones that do usually tend to highlight their product outside of the context of Internet voyeurism.
Color on Facebook currently has about 1,000 active users.
(via: AdAge)
I got a few reports that the YouTube version of the video has now been set to private. I can still see it, but just in case, below is the Vimeo version, which was actually uploaded late last year.
Pool Hopping Commercial 2011 from Color on Vimeo.
Liked this story? Share it.About the author
Frederic Lardinois founded SiliconFilter in 2011. Before starting this site, he wrote about 1,500 articles for ReadWriteWeb. His areas of interest are consumer web and mobile apps, as well as Internet-connected devices like cars, smart sensors and toasters. You can reach him at [email protected]
I hope those ladies are wearing some www.meundies.com
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Likespent -> spend
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Likecorrect - thanks! jorisw
My latest conversation: Hands-On With iBooks Author: eBook Authoring Made Easy, Not Just for Textbooks
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LikeThe youtube link returns "private video". Here it is on vimeo - http://vimeo.com/32985754.
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LikeBy "add" you probably mean "ad" (as in "advertisement"), and by the spurious comma after "the ones that do", you probably don't mean to have a comma.
b // myselfmusic.com
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LikeTheir first ad had people publicly sharing a video of their friend urinating in public. Not even joking. http://vimeo.com/32986008
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LikeI believe that Color is an elaborate practical joke -- it's a spoof of the VC/startup community, the same way 'Scary Movie' spoofs horror films.
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LikeConversation from Twitter
raganwald thanks for submitting the color story to Hacker News - sadly, it looks like it got flagged by somebody and disappeared :(
royrod lol, seriously. could not believe that was a real ad when I watched it this morning.
sproutworx I didn't even click the link. I just know.
oaknd1 Haha. Read it. You'll be amazed.
sproutworx ha! See it's video...but NOT audio. LITERALLY NO ONE IS IN THIS MARKET. AT ALL.
sproutworx no.
flyosity My mouth was agape the entire time…I just can't believe this company
flyosity What an extraordinary -- and cautionary -- tale of dot com hubris. Hard to believe how ridiculous the 'color' saga has been
EghosaO the comments on that post are scathing! imo…overall, an oppty lost for the color team.
gniting $41m buys one lotsa go-arounds...lots...
EghosaO gniting "go around" is the operative term. high angular velocity -- tho i must say i feel bad every time i take a potshot at colr
flyosity I'm disgusted. Where can I watch?
TylerRidings greatest 50 mill ever spent. (redull)
joshuaarnao huh?
TylerRidings I love that Color got 50 million to waste. The (redull) is my subliminal message to you.
joshuaarnao ha ohhh got it lol. And yea they piss me off.
TylerRidings if the app did audio it could be something.
joshuaarnao ehh still gonna say no on that one lol. I don't think it will ever catch on after all the shit talking and bad app attempts.
TylerRidings you never know.
TylerRidings I actually like the Color for Facebook app, just don't have a lot of use for it.
joshuaarnao no, I know lol. But hm haven't seen the fb app I need to check that out. I need to see a new app update too...
TylerRidings it's not shabby.
db don't get me started on color. It makes me do mad.
TylerRidings Color should have just added profiles for users with the ability friend/follow. It would've been fine. Now it's whack.
.db totally agree. And by now I think color's had too many people shit talking them, and too many poor app releases to ever gain traction.
TylerRidings Never say never. Fab pivoted at least 4 times before hitting a homerun. They just need to find & serve a need.
db yea good point--and it's not like they don't have the money! you're on @joshuaarnao's side haha.
flyosity and I thought you were kidding. wow.
flyosity oh? I thought their main business was pivoting.
flyosity well, porn did make VHS better than Betamax; Blu-Ray better than HD-DVD.
ashleymayer bc they are walking and not driving (in the suburbs!) I'm going to assume they are all underage, making this even creepier.
mattxs On the bright side, Color continues to make the rest of us look *really* good by comparison.
ashleymayer oh my gosh... a pool party make-out app... unbelievable! There's an app for everything... LOL
kymbee Sadly I don't go to nearly enough pool parties to warrant downloading this ;)