Can A Cell Phone Plan Save Your Marriage?

23 Aug

August 23, 2011

Have you seen this commercial?

 

YES! Messaging is free and unlimited for the whole family. Great! Unlimited mobile minutes! Whoo hoo! That would be great for a large family with lots of kids who text all the time. It is money saver because all those texts add up, and you know how kids like to text and going over your minutes is expensive.

So why didn’t they show that?

Instead we saw a middle-aged man and woman. They obviously have some money since they have a large greenhouse in the back, and the wife has the free time to tend it so she probably doesn’t have to hold down a job. They must have a bad marriage since a little thing like signing up for a cell phone plan was enough to push the wife over the edge. What saved the marriage? That AT&T offers free texts. But maybe not. The husband is a schlub who seems to have married above his station, and the wife doesn’t show any affection. She has obviously been doubting the marriage for a long time.

So instead of aiming their ad at large families with kids who text all the time, they aimed the ad at upper-middle class suburban desperation. How many of us can relate to that ad? I don’t know anyone in Brooklyn who has a greenhouse, let alone the time to spend in it. And if you do relate to that ad, you’d be better off spending time working on your marriage than switching cell phone plans.

In this economy they totally missed the mark. Way to go, AT&T.

It is very fitting that AT&T named this ad “Mistake.” Whoever named it knew just what they were doing.

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3 Responses to “Can A Cell Phone Plan Save Your Marriage?”

  1. Thomas Stazyk's avatar
    Thomas Stazyk August 23, 2011 at 1:35 am #

    Well, telecom companies have been out of touch with their customers for so long it comes as no surprise they miss the point in their ads. Down here NZ Telecom just pulled a multimillion dollar series of ads for the Rugby World Cup that exhorted NZers to “Abstain for the Game,” i.e., to forgo sex for the duration of the World Cup to show support for the team. Talk about a non starter!

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/advertising/news/article.cfm?c_id=111&objectid=10746435

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    • bmj2k's avatar
      bmj2k August 23, 2011 at 1:41 am #

      I am about as bewildered as the writer of that article. I don’t get it at all.

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  2. The Hook's avatar
    The Hook August 25, 2011 at 3:03 pm #

    Commercials are like crack for your brain!

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