Purple Reign

Girls get colourful with mobile

What?: Mobile endorsement is stepping up its game:

* Girls Aloud’s partnership with Samsung will see them donning Purple at every available opportunity. Samsung’s F210 Purplephone launch at Phones 4 U saw the girls clad head to toe in the colour to emphasis “The power of purple”. Their latest video highlights the brand colour alongside lingering Samsung product shots and lyrical references to mobile use.

* Beyonce is putting her name to a branded mobile. The gold and burgundy B’Phone device (designed by the singer) features a themed start-up screen, exclusive video and photos. In a staggering piece of pre-emptive marketing, the handset also includes a song Beyonce recorded when she was 10 called ‘632-5792’, named after a phone number.

So what?: Rihanna struck up a deal with LG to promote their Chocolate phone range in 2006 and the colour linkage continues with Fergie fronting a massive campaign for Motorola’s MOTO U9 handset (Which comes in black but not pea green). How long before we get the Amy Winehouse (back to) black mobile range?Intermittent signal, built in breathalyzer and a camera hotwired to the Evening Standard news desk.

The shamelessness of mobile use in music videos prompts the question as to when a band will be formed solely to promote mobile. Nokia touched on it with their faux boy band parody, but is it really so strange a concept? If Live Nation can affectively buy Madonna what’s stopping the next big mobile acquisition being a band?

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