Google Takes a ‘Vanilla’ Approach to Its Pixel Phone

Yum, so many metaphorical ice cream cones

For most folks, vanilla ice cream cones are tasty treats.

But Google’s having none of that, portraying such snacks as metaphors for boring old phones in a :60 touting its Pixel 10 with Gemini AI.

The key line, “Get outside your comfort phone” is no typo—we think.

“Switching phones is an emotional decision, and we know the anxiety of learning a new device often leads people to settle for the status quo,” says Google SVP of global marketing Adrienne Lofton.

With that in mind, the new work, developed in-house, “puts a flag in the ground to declare that Google Pixel is the new standard in today’s AI era,” she says.

Epoch directors Matias Rygh and Mathias Nordli Eriksen deliver the whimsy and defied this scribe’s expectations, because not a single cone melts. Yeah, the notion of “vanilla” as bland/dull/dreary has been done to death. But here, jaunty craft and comic understatement make for a pleasing confection.

The work began breaking this week across digital, social and other channels in North America, Europe and Asia.