HALIFAX — Billed as the "ultimate all-in-one device," the new Pomegranate NS08 phone plays music, takes photos, surfs the web, projects movies and -- simply place the device over a mug -- brews a delicious cup of coffee.

It would seem, to anyone who visits www.pomegranatephone.ca, that the sleek hand-held does it all, except exist.

The fake gadget and its flashy, interactive website are the centrepiece of a viral marketing campaign funded by the Nova Scotia government to lure newcomers to the province, though some advertising experts say the phoney-phone campaign rings hollow.

Stacey Jones-Oxner, a spokeswoman for the campaign, said the province was looking to sell itself as the perfect place to invest, work, live and do business.

But in order to do that, Jones-Oxner says the creative team wanted an ad that would stand out and grab people's attention.

"Since there is so much buzz about the newest and latest smart phone ... we thought it was a good device to use," she said in a recent interview.

"It's especially true when you consider the people who are interested in the latest technology are exactly the people we're trying to reach."

The $300,000 campaign, launched Sept. 30, is part of a provincial government initiative called Come to Life and is the brainchild of three companies, Bristol, Breathe Media and Egg Films.

The website touts the Pomegranate -- a shiny phone in the shape of a tear drop -- as the absolute multi-tasker's tool.

It contains a GPS and a so-called global voice translator that instantaneously translates the speaker's voice into 50 different languages.

The device becomes increasingly absurd as visitors to the website continue clicking on the phone's features, including a built-in harmonica (to liven up business meetings) and an electric razor.

"Once you start using it, you'll wonder how you ever lived without it," says a man's voice as a video plays of a businessman hurrying down a flight of stairs while shaving his stubble.

"If you're really in a rush, you can even talk and shave at the same time."

It becomes clear that the joke's on you once you try to click on the phone's release date.

A message appears: "Someday you'll be able to get everything you want in one device. Today you can get everything you want in one place."

Visitors are then whisked away to a Come to Life website, featuring information on the province and vignettes of local entrepreneurs.

Jeff White, a Halifax-based graphic designer, said he believes the Pomegranate ad is slick, but besides the NS08 reference, there's little tying the original website to Nova Scotia.

That's a problem, he said.

"It's so easy for a creative person to latch onto the joy of the concept," said White, who blogged about the Pomegranate under the heading, "When Internet marketing goes wrong."

"Where I think it starts to fall down a little bit is that it's tough to make the connection between sort of the glossy, beautiful visuals and the fact that, hey, this is supposed to market Nova Scotia."

Jones-Oxner said if the phone ad wasn't so realistic, visitors to the website wouldn't be engaged, and the campaign wouldn't be generating discussions on blogs and in social networking sites.

The campaign spread the word about the site to various business associations and government groups, and encouraged them to pass it along. The marketers also went to Ottawa, Toronto and Boston and handed out actual pomegranates with the website address attached.

These were the starting points of a technique known as viral marketing.

Since the site was launched there have been more than 210,000 visits to the site and the majority of visitors go to the Come to Life website. On average, visitors spend about three minutes browsing that site.

In his blog, Luis Carranza, a digital strategist for a London-based ad agency, called the campaign "a brilliant use of social media."

He said the purpose is to inspire conversations, and that's where the advertisement's success lies.

"This isn't a traditional campaign and anyone who tried to compare it to a traditional campaign is doing the creative work an injustice," Carranza wrote in an email.

"Nova Scotia is positioned as a progressive place in a progressive way. Ideally, to attract progressive people. If you are conservative by nature, you are not the target audience.

"I get it and so do most people I know. It's not for everyone."

It's not the first time the provincial government has developed a viral website to promote Nova Scotia.

In 2007, Come to Life launched a website dubbed Calgaria that was meant lure Bluenosers back home from Alberta. The campaign, which no longer exists, joked that Maritimers who think they're enjoying life in Calgary are delusional.