Smartphone vendors have used all sorts of promotions and marketing gimmicks to advertise their wares but this rap video from HTC may be the strangest yet.
The video, which features PM Dawn's Doc G with the help of HTC's own D 2 tha B (otherwise known as David Bruce), is for a song called Hold the Crown. The lyrics are laughably bad as the vocalist takes swings at Apple (your phone was all glass, why you change your tune now?) and Samsung (we own the universe, your Galaxy is overrated). It only gets worse as it goes on.
Gorilla Glass 3, Duo Sensor, dual speakers,
HTC is MVP your smartphone's on the bleachers,
Internal battery strong,
But if my power's low,
I stay alive with Extreme Power Saving Mode
You get it all here - poor choreography, cheap-looking video effects, the aforementioned cheesy lyrics and people dressed as cardboard smartphones battling it out.
While I applaud the effort to be different and appeal to a younger generation, it's hard to see how anyone at HTC thought this was a good idea. Of course, I was singing the same tune (no pun intended) back in 2013 when HTC partnered with Funny or Die to create a short-form comedy sketch for the launch of the HTC One.
In that piece, James Van Der Beek starred in a parody of The Bachelor with eligible contestants - Smart Phone, Flip Phone, Rotary Phone and '90s Phone - all vying for his heart.