On 3D TV, Who Are You Going to Believe: Sony's Ads or Your Own Lying Eyes?

Sony (SNE) has launched a jittery, blurry "3D" ad on the decidedly two-dimensional medium of regular TV and YouTube, in an increasingly common bet by next-generation electronics makers that advertising is more truthful than your own lying eyes. The ad (below) is a mess when viewed on a regular screen, and it ends with the tagline, "Maybe it's time to get a 3D TV." (It also features the Brazilian soccer genius Kaka.)

It comes after George Takei's ad for the Sharp Quattron Quad Pixel extra-yellow TVs -- you have to believe that it's more yellow, (or more 3D in Sony's case), even though on your screen it isn't. Even Apple (AAPL) got into the act with a low-res YouTube promo touting the new hi-res, 326 pixels-per-inch iPhone screen.

The TVs launch imminently. Sony has a huge barrier with consumers because even with a 3D TV, you will still need to pay $150 for the glasses to see the images. (Do you want to turn your living room into the cover of Guy Debord's 1967 situationist masterpiece "Society of the Spectacle"?) It's a big gamble -- current estimates of near-term 3D TV sales are tiny.

Conceptually, all these ads make no sense. We literally can't see the thing they're telling us is awesome, and the medium we're seeing it on adequately displays everything else. On paper, that's a self-defeating sales pitch because the selling proposition can be answered by the consumer in the negative -- a huge no-no in advertising. But as the pace of new technology innovations quickens -- and in the case of Apple, actually delivers -- I think consumers will get used to being pitched on things they can't see. If sales follow, it will be significant success for the ad biz and a testament to the power of creativity.