Man, I Love This Show!

Okay, you’ll have to bear with me on this one (pun?). AT&T and Nokia have snagged Will Arnett in their new marketing campaign called “Work for Will“. The concept goes that Will is an egomanical Hollywood type who loves his Nokia phone so much that he’s firing his assistant, but he needs a second assistant to help handle the phone, and he’s asking for our help.

You visit workforwill.com, “customize” a Nokia Lumia 920 by adding LiveTiles and apps, and submit it for Will’s approval and comments. Will responds almost immediately, with a video customized to the phone you submitted.

After submitting a couple different phones, you begin to notice that the video is made up of parts, some of which get swapped out when your customization is unique in some way. He has different comments reacting to the color of the phone body, and he might change what he says depending on the category or number of tiles you add. Finally, he ends it by telling you to get your friends to vote for your phone so you can win.

The Arrested Development reference comes when you customize a phone with Netflix on it. See one of my submissions here, starting at 1:17. Will says:

Yes. Netflix. I’ve heard good things… about one of the shows that’s gonna be on there… starring somebody’s favorite Canadian actor… and second-favorite Canadian actor, Michael Cera… Too much?

Background: Will Arnett is Canadian. Anyway, it’s a nice little reference. (The bear reference is a pun because Will sits on a swivel-bear.)

On a side note, this kind of character, the charming jerk, is one that Will is getting cast as a lot recently. I’m glad his character on “Up All Night” is a departure from that.