According to Occam’s razor, the simplest solutions are oft the best. And when trying to ease smartphone addiction, it couldn’t possibly get simpler than the NoPhone. This 100% water resistant phone-shaped device is essentially a rectangular plastic slab. What does it do? Absolutely nothing save act as surrogate to any mobile device. 

According to the campaign (and multiple studies), phone addiction is real. And it’s everywhere. It’s ruining your dates, distracting you at concerts, and disrupting you in movie theatres. That’s why copywriter Chris Sheldon and art director Van Gould first unleashed the NoPhone upon a gadget-obsessed populace with a successful Kickstarter campaign in late 2014. There they raised more than triple its $5000 goal.

“Everyone in the bar was holding a smartphone, including us,” Gould explained to Adweek. “We realized that phone addiction is everywhere. We decided to create a real solution.”

What started off as a social statement eventually transformed into company NoPhone LLC. What was later dubbed by PC Advisor as “#1 Most Useless Gadget Of All Time”, beating even the Apple Watch. And in September, the NoPhone Air was launched hot on the heels of the iPhone 7. When you open the NoPhone Air packaging, it looks like there is nothing inside. With absolutely no features, the NoPhone Air feels like nothing in your hand. It’s a completely distraction-free device in frustration-free packaging that can only be pre-ordered at $5US.

If you’re asking yourself who would buy these; many people apparently. More than 12,000 units of NoPhone have been purchased and delivered to recipients the world over. NoPhone’s store offers customers trying to shed their smartphones a couple of options: there’s the original NoPhone and a NoPhone Selfie (a black rectangle with a mirror pasted on it), both selling for $10. The NoPhone Air is still raising money via KickStarter, and it is estimated to ship out December 2016.

Would you purchase one of these to curb your smartphone addiction?

Source: http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/2-creatives-made-plastic-slab-ease-your-smartphone-addiction-and-it-sold-crazy-174563