The hardest part of selling 1.5

I JUST posted my comments on the hardest part of selling (for me anyway), and I was reviewing some news over the weekend and noticed this banner advertisement for the BlackBerry Pearl (I'm always looking at what the "big" companies are doing). Now, it's a neat ad, but I have a problem with the message, and it's not helping me build trust in the phone.

Let's start off with this premise: Stylish is Subjective. What I think is stylish is different from what my father thinks is stylish is different from what my brother thinks is style is different... you get the picture.

So I saw this ad, and saw "Small, Smart and Stylish." I'll ignore that since Apple announced the iPhone I've looked at "smart phones" differently and focus on the Stylish. I am a firm believer that you can't tell me something is stylish. You communicate that in other ways—through slick advertising, showing people I want to be using the product, or wearing the clothes. If a stranger walks up to you and says, "these pants are stylish, buy them," your first reaction is... ?

Same thing with this ad. I understand they needed a word to make the alliteration work, but in this case, I think the writing technique is getting in the way of the device. And if they needed another "s" word, why not something like sophisticated or even...

sublime.