A young nerd checks out the authenticity of a computer store salesman’s computer-geekiness in this silly ad for Verison Wireless’s tablet plans. You see, he’s checking out whether or not the people working for Verison are reliably nerdy enough to trust with selling his mom a tablet computer. He asks a lot of nerdy questions, or so we’re led to believe, in a sort of “dueling banjos” of computer-geekiness, which I guess the ad guys thought was more like a Kung Fu challenge, since we’re treated to a bamboo flute flourish as a coda to top it all off. The funny thing about this “duel” is that the questions aren’t all that obscure or specialized, and the information the sales guy is parroting back to the nerd could easily be found printed on the front of the tablet’s packaging box. But that’s enough for the nerdy kid, and as he slurps his Big Gulp in tribute to the salesman’s sufficient level of nerdiness, he accedes control of his mother’s destiny and saunters off into the sunset (or most likely the food court in whatever mall they’re in). So that’s a great ad for Verison Wireless stores, right?
Um, this is a funny commercial, but there are a number of problems with this one for me, and I’ll just start at the top. The kid is there to protect his mother, right? So he quizzes this guy’s working knowledge of tablets with a few brief, simple, cursory queries. The salesman passes this plop quiz, but you can see that he’s visibly relieved when the kid pronounces him competent to serve his mother’s needs. So, why would he look so demonstrably relieved? Well, apparently it’s because the kid didn’t ask him any hard questions. And why not? It’s obviously because this kid is a fake nerd who is posing as knowledgeable about computers to impress his mom (who knows absolutely ZERO about anything gadget-oriented) so that she’ll give him some money or something. So he’s faking for the purposes of extortion! What a little creep!
But he’s not just a creep because of that! Guess why else he’s a creep. Yes, that’s right: it’s because he’s not even really protecting her after all! Finding out if some sales guy knows the bare minimum about the stuff he’s peddling and then walking away is not all that helpful for two reasons: 1.) Once the kid is gone, his mother still won’t know what questions to ask to find out which tablet would be right for her, and she’d be just as lost trying to comprehend all this computer lingo gobbledygook spewed at her by the salesnerd; and 2.) Establishing that a salesgeek knows what he’s talking about does absolutely nothing to vouch for his honesty. He could still gyp the poor woman all day long and get her to pay for all kinds of bells & whistles she doesn’t want or need as soon as the kid walks away, and once she signs that contract, she’s locked into it for however long it’s for! In order to protect her, that brat needs to be there to help, not just establish that the sales clerk is a nerd too and beat it! What a jerk, lying down on the job like that! If I were his mother, he’d be grounded! (That’s right, mister!) But then that would mean he’d be around the house to bug her all the time, so on second thought, perhaps that’s not such a good idea. I’ve got it! How about no computer for a month! Ha ha! That’ll learn ‘im! (But again, with nothing to do, he’d be annoying his mom all month. Damn! But what about this for a solution: make him join some youth sports league! Now that’s a punishment for a young nerd!)
Here’s the ad:
