In order to demonstrate the wonderful, lifelike picture quality on this new Samsung Infuse 4G cell-phone they’re hawking now, AT&T is running this spot, which has a guy show a picture of a tarantula to a woman, who screams because she thinks it’s real. That’s not all, though, because an older man, presumably her father, thinks it’s real too; and in order to protect his daughter’s safety (as well as his own, and I guess everyone else’s too), he takes off his shoe, and smashes the cell-phone again and again, until it is beyond repair. Oh, yes: and he also smashes it one, especially hard, last time, even when it’s become clear by that point that it’s just a phone and not an actual tarantula. So I guess what AT&T wants us to do is say to ourselves: “Hey, yeah! I want that phone where everyone is always going to try to smash it and stuff!” I don’t know, maybe they have to sell a lot of them because they bought too many of them or something, but I wouldn’t think that’s the best way to try to sell a phone (showing someone smashing it, that it).
In fact, this is a lot like a sketch comedy piece I wrote a couple of years ago. In my joke ad for a flat-screen TV set, I had the announcer say stuff about how great the picture was, while some guy was watching a nature program about a bird on the TV, with his cat sitting next to him; and as the TV set showed a bird sitting on a branch singing, the cat noticed it, thought it was real, and pounced on the television set, knocking it to the floor and ripping the screen to shreds with its claws and teeth, as the announcer said: “In fact, it’s so lifelike, you may be surprised!” But that was just a joke! The reason I thought it was so funny is that it’s a terrible idea for trying to sell someone on a TV set, because if they have any pets, it makes it look like they might attack and destroy the expensive new television screen! And this AT&T cell-phone ad is doing essentially the same thing! Only this time, they're serious!
So what I come away with from seeing this commercial is this: I don’t want the phone everybody is going to try to smash all the time! I guess I’ll just get an iPhone; and hey: Verison has them now, so I guess I’ll just get one from them. Because when you see someone smashing a cell-phone in an ad for AT&T with the sound off, it makes you remember about all the times that people you know have complained about how frustrated they have been with AT&T service, and it subliminally says to you: “People want to smash AT&T phones. It must be the crappy reception and service.” I’m sorry, but most people watch the ads with the sound off these days, and with the sound off, you just see the AT&T logo, and then someone is smashing the phone. So what is that going to make you think about? I guess there is a picture of a tarantula on it, but still, it makes me think more about customer dissatisfaction with cell-phone service providers than the tarantula picture, because everyone I know is always constantly complaining bitterly about how terrible their cell-phone reception, service, etc., is. And like it or not, AT&T, (and ad creatives) that’s just a fact.
I mean, the spot is funny, but I don’t think it’s a good ad for a cell-phone. It’s really an issue of what message you’re sending, especially in light of the unreliability of cell-phone reception, and how frustrated people get with that: sometimes even to the point of wanting to smash their phone. But whenever you’re showing people destroying your product in the commercial for it, I think you’ve got a message problem. (Unless it’s an automobile crash test, and the marketing strategy for your car brand is touting its safety rating and survivability in auto-accidents. Mercedes and Volvo do this sometimes, and it works okay for them. And it might also work well for a bike helmet ad; in fact, I think there are some award-winning print ads like that for bike helmets. But for marketing a cell-phone? Um, no.)
Here’s the ad. See what you think:
