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Quite a while ago I saw on YouTube (?) a video, where we see from behind a glass a room for focus group/interrogation/group therapy, with several people around a table taking turns and telling their stories, feelings, etc. But when it comes to the last guy, once he starts talking, the "camera" starts glitching as if because of some impulse, the guy becomes more and more frantic, and, to the horror of the others, he starts turning into some different shapes looking like black ferromagnetic liquid with spikes, needles etc., and this spiky blob jumps over the ceiling and the walls keeping to scream incoherently with the guy's voice. I remember some phrases were: "I'm the medium! I'm the message!".

In the end I realised it was kind of an ad for some mobile phone (?) or some big high-tech brand (Philips, Samsung?). I desperately need this visual reference for one project.

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  • en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_medium_is_the_message?
    – Valorum
    Commented Nov 29, 2018 at 19:31
  • @Valorum - It certainly sounds like it's referencing McLuhan's statement.
    – RDFozz
    Commented Nov 29, 2018 at 19:34
  • Welcome to SFF.SE! Can you provide any additional information? In particular: do you remember when you saw the video? I gather that you think you saw it on YouTube, but it might have been elsewhere; was it definitely on the internet, or could it have been on television?
    – RDFozz
    Commented Nov 29, 2018 at 19:36
  • This question would be improved by going through the checklists here; How to ask a good story-ID question?
    – Valorum
    Commented Nov 29, 2018 at 20:02
  • Yes, I definitely saw it on the Internet, several years ago, I believe. I tried to search using these phrases and came up to this McLuhan's thing. And yes, the creators of the ad (?) did this on purpose as it was a part of the creative. The only other option where I could see it was "The Shots", periodical collection of awarded/cool/rising ads and creative works distributed among ad agencies.
    – user92071
    Commented Nov 29, 2018 at 20:05

1 Answer 1

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This is a Nokia Maemo ad. It's a focus group, and one of the guys in it freaks out and starts glitching like you described while ranting about being the medium and the message. He's called Ash, posssibly alluding to the android that malfunctioned in Alien. Here it is:

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  • That's the one! Fantastic, thanks a lot, mate!
    – user92071
    Commented Feb 21, 2019 at 21:15
  • @user92071 No problem! :) But don't forget to click on the check mark next to the answer to mark this as 'solved'.
    – Walt
    Commented Jun 29, 2019 at 7:09
  • Maybe I'm blind, but I don't see any buttons or checkboxes to do so. ((( A screenshot with a highlighted area might be useful ))
    – user92071
    Commented Jun 30, 2019 at 19:51
  • @user92071 It's the V sign under the answer's score (Also see this Meta post)
    – Walt
    Commented Jun 30, 2019 at 20:40
  • Done. )) thanks for the tip and the answer, mate!
    – user92071
    Commented Jul 1, 2019 at 21:09

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