I got a tip about this Cisco advert and managed to catch it on my DVR without realizing it, but I accidentally deleted it before I could digitize it. I was waiting to catch it again but it seems like it only aired on one week. Cisco commercials show up, but it’s always a different one. Since then, discussions have popped up all over. So I finally decided to pull it of the Cisco web site. There are additional spots that didn’t air on TV. I’ve put them all together in one vid so you don’t need to wait through the intermissions. Where to start on this… it’s too easy. The main thing they are trying to sell is the fact that with Cisco Networks you can be in touch with everyone on a project almost instantly, no matter where they are. Ironically, the ad agency who put his together couldn’t have been more out of touch with skateboarding culture or history. – Thanks to Tracy Sigler and Paige for the tip.
Cisco Networks commercial using skateboards.
The first part of the video was what they used for the TV commercial. Everything after the first Cisco logo was not shown on TV.
The analysis.
They put a lot of effort and money into these ad spots. They even went so far as to invent fake histories for the fake personalities that work at the fake company that uses Cisco network products. Let’s see if they got their money’s worth from the ad agency.
Voiceover: New prototype! Let’s see what the skaters think.
The skaters think you designed that board in 1979 at best, or 1983 and still a few years behind the times at worst. I think you have to go out of your way to find that shape at that size. Even the toy stores have moved on to popsicles.
Voiceover: Is it working? It’s better!
Cut that point off! Oh oh, not much nose left. Fire the person in charge of continuity, the point is back! Aaagh! It’s the albino twin of Carrot Top!
Hanging out in Venice, painting the board now, except it’s back to a popsicle stick, until I point a camera and it’s then it’s slalom board, unless it shows up on in a conference room in which case it’s back to a popsicle stick. Those graphics really pop on the top of the deck there. Now where did I put my clear pizza grip?
Voiceover: I’ve been a professional skateboarder since I was 14. For the last few years i’ve been product testing for Thunder Sk8. They were the dudes that invented the twin tail trend back in the early 90’s. So when they invent something new, they get me to test it out.
Professional skateboarder since 14, actor since last week. Really, a professional skateboarder? He barely lands that rock and roll on the launch ramp, and then those tic-tacs practically throw him off the deck. Thunder Sk8… Yeah sure, weren’t they the company that Corey Webster went to after leaving Smash Skates? I think they sponsor Shaun Yost as well. When did Thunder Sk8 invent something new? Oh right, they invented the retro cruiser.
That’s Shawn Adams, fake director of fake product development. He’s in charge of everything, including subliminal advertising for Nike in the graphics. When not in the office, he trolls skateparks for young boys, I mean product testers. Who is the mysterious woman in the green shirt? I’m sure she’s a critical part of the development team, since she’s messing around with skateboard trucks on the conference call. More on that later.
Voiceover: My name is Dylan Ho. I love to skate and I love to design. I’ve been painting on boards since my days in Hawaii. Surfboards, wakeboards, and now skateboards. My first skateboard was a Thunder Sk8 brand twin tip deck. So when I heard that Shawn Adams was a big fan of my work, it wasn’t long before we became collaborators.
Last name Ho? History in Surfboards? Yes, go on, it sounds familiar. Surfboards to wakeboards to skateboards, that’s a logical progression. Shawn Adams is a big fan of your work and Termite skateboards apparently. How did they manage to get one semi-real skateboard in there and then have such a laughable deck as the main board in the commercial? Was there absolutely nobody on the production team that skated? Kids, always wear a helmet when spray painting decks at your local skatepark. Sure, it’s OK, bring lots of spray paint to the skatepark, they love it!
Hey, It’s Tanya Ponce! She’s not part of the product development team at all, she’s just the IT gal. Cisco networks free up so much time for her that they let her learn how to skateboard in the office, just like at that design firm in Portland.
24 comments
THRASHIN'
yeah totally it reminds me of 80’s style filming that they did with skateboarding in the 80’s but with newschool double tail boards not oldschool boards i only ride oldschool skateboards but this is still rad
thomas
they took the ad off of youtube. for us overseas skaters, to see this ridiculous ad is pretty tough without US cable…..
Anybody willing to toss this back onto youtube , and post up the link ???
paige
I am not intimate with skating myself anymore, so the commercial in general looked OK to me on a superficial level (i.e. zoning out with a hangover during some midday celebrity gossip show). I wasn’t impressed, and I know it wasn’t a good representation, but it fed into what the popular detached idea of what skateboarding is. I think getting too specific or too accurate would have alienated (for lack of a better word) the general audience they were going for. So, do you leave the suit and ties scratching their heads, or the skaters pissed? A lot of companies are now trying to reach the younger generations with a lot of expendable income, and a lot of old people don’t know the schematics of skating. So, Cisco tried to create a totally tubular commercial to make old people feel rad enough to invest in the pocketbooks (more like scrunchy dollars and pocket lint) of America’s youth.
Thanks for reading my sociological vomit.
K.C.
I can’t believe they tried to market this fake crap to people.
It was like watching a Hollywood remake of Machotaildrop.
cold ones
It’s on the trail behind like building J. There’s a little basketball court & volleyball court in the corner of the parking lot. If you go up to the trail from the courts you can see it on the other side of the creek. It’s a little spillway thing.
LP
where at cold ones? exactly? i am in SJ
cold ones
Are you in SJ? There’s pretty cool looking little ditch off the bike trail by the campus. I’ve never skated here, but there are tons of curbs and ledges and little gaps.
LP
no kilwag they dont let us skate down the halls, but i have skated the campus, they have always fresh painted curbs. also, they just got a new building so when it wasnt fenced off i charged through the lobby during construction.
skategeezer
why most ad agencies should never touch anything skate related…
JAKEANDANNOY
I also swear when they are not watching Nickalodeon.
JAKEANDANNOY
Yeah I see it. If Retegui were a foot 1/2 taller and/or 15 lbs lighter. Dude looks more like a new-age or rockn’roll dad on a Nickalodeon sitcom. And I only know that because I have kids who watch Nickalodeon.
I swear.
cskate
Shawn Adams kinda looks like Eddie Retegui
hawskins
My favorite part is the crummy tattoo on the douchebag actor who plays the manager. Don’t we have any shirts with smaller sleeves?
Prickly Pete
It’s funny to imagine the scenario in this ad playing out in 1986 among a lo-tech bunch like Team Alva or Zorlac. Craig Johnson calling from a payphone at the Clown Ramp, “The shape’s not wide and heavy enough and the nose is too long.”
“Days later our typist received a fax from Pushead showing us the Devilfish artwork. Despite our use of the latest faxing technology it was completely impossible for us to figure out what he drew.”
How did we ever get along?
LS
I was there and the conversation between Craig and Newton, Well… Ha ha!
cskate
And they’ve got Yahoo Serious as a team rider.
http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/8970000/8977747.jpg
holly
Thunder trucks should sue the pants off cisco!
conahan
What’s the opposite of a poseur? You’ll never make it if you keep spelling it poser.
Denny
Shut up! I ride Thunder SK8’s and you guys would too if you weren’t such posers! Only kidding. I wouldn’t be caught dead on a Thunder Sk8. I only ride Variflex. I love the part about “they’re the dudes that came up with the twin tail trend back in the 90’s”. Priceless. And yes. Sometimes I can’t do a tic-tac so I take a jig saw to my skateboard and “redesign” it. After that my tic-tacs are pretty much perfect.
cskate
The commercials are good because they are so realistic and believable, I’m glad they really tried to represent skateboarding as it truly is.
By now you realize I’m being sarcastic. I do a different kind of skateboarding than that the kind that sells computers.
Mac
Those look like Road Rider 4’s on a Hobie Greg Weaver in the top shots. State of the art. In 1976. So much money spent by Cisco, for total crap out of the ad agency. What a waste. Oddly enough, my other least favorite ad on tv is also a Cisco one, where the guy, presumably an aid worker, is talking to his family from a refugee camp on a video conference. Incredibly un-genuine and weirdly disturbing, for some reason. Anyone else seen that one? Creeps me out.
bailgun
all cisco employees get limited edition thundersticks ride to the conference room.
Kilwag
Do they let you skate down the halls?
Shhh! Don’t tell.
LP
i am a contractor at cisco….