AT&T sending the wrong message with commercials?

[augidog]

there's a few tv commercials that air regularly, that depict a work environment where everyone's playing online during company time.
(yeah, sure, i'm a CEO and i want all my people to have that Torch 4G so they can waste company resources faster than ever.)

another one shows a 12 year old girl re-selling her hotspot service to "supplement my allowance"...
(and she has fistfuls of cash...does this one make anyone else's skin crawl a bit?)

and another one shows a guy, an adult, being completely rude to his girlfriend during dinner.
(this one should bother a lot of people for obvious reasons)

is that the kind of people they're trying to appeal to? and, is that the kind of people they think we are?

yaknow, comes a time when ethics has to be factored into any consumer or business arrangement.

[montyl]

Welcome to the "me" generation.

[augidog]

exactly, montyl...but just letting it go as "everyone's doing it" is the core cause of the problem as i see it.

mostly, what those commercials show me is what kind of folks AT&T's policy makers are.

[montyl]

I am not saying that it is correct, or it is the way things should be. watch most network broadcast tv, and the TV shows they have, everytime I have to watch one I get dumber by the second, but there are actually a lot of people out there watching them because they LIKE it, now what does that tell you? Ooops I forgot those are the people making commercials like the ones that started this thread.

[jranciano]

Most of the enterprise market will use BlackBerry as their mobile communication device regardless of the television commercials. Those ads are designed to reach out to a different market than what seems to be yours.

Not saying I agree with the morals/ethics of it, but I will say that it is effective for its targeted audience...

[augidog]

i wasn't saying you (edit: either one of you) were endorsing it, sorry if it seemed that way.

and, yeah...i realize i'm merely pointing out the obvious. i feel the same way about television, because it truly is a reflection of what the masses want.

hmmm...maybe those commercials are shot on-location at AT&T facilities? that would explain a lot.

[joeldf]

"'Humor'. It is a difficult concept. It is not logical".

[augidog]

and i love the mechanics of humor, myself. the pit-boss says "you can do everything from the golf course" and next thing the empty chair is spinning.

i'm suggesting that making fun of certain situations, even when it's clearly humor, will eventually blur perception of the non-fiction environment...is it really a good thing, our collective acceptance of the workplace depicted as a playground? and do we want a company we "valued customers" have supported for years exhibiting such a cavalier attitude about what in real life is a real problem?

i can just picture an AT&T exec busting his real-life office crew goofing off: he points and laughs and says "hey, just like on TV, you guys are hilarious!"

clearly, chicken or egg comes into play...again, i know i'm stating the obvious, but sometimes an old guy like me just can't resist a little bit of "when i was your age."

anyways, whether it's chicken or egg, active choices were made...keyword "choice."

we've seen tons of other smartphone commercials that completely (and positively) demonstrate, entertain, amuse, and successfully entice...so....?

the negative-as-humor theme AT&T's adopted is a series of choices. and when i collect all the (policy) choices AT&T's been making recently into one basket...yeah the rest of the joke is that today's AT&T smells like rotten eggs.

im(valued customer since 2005)o, of course.

[Propa]

LOL yea i feel the OP took those commercials waaaaay too seriously...talk about a reach...im sure ATT isn't thinking "yea goof off on company time" or "watch the game from your phone at dinner"...those commercials were designed to be playful....jokes.... i like what ATT is doing with those types and I'm ready to see more

[augidog]

way too seriously? actually, it was from the perspective of an older viewer trying to imagine how it affects today's youth. sure it's a joke, i know that, altho i don't appreciate the subject matter...but who's telling the kids that?

it's a generation gap, that's all, but this one isn't about music or crazy clothes which i'm not affected by, it's about ethics.

as a veteran, i don't mind saying the ethical generation gap bothers me a lot.

[cntrydncr223]

It's incredibly hard to please the entire audience. The generations keep changing (as they should), but the younger generation grows up much faster than we did. I suspect companies need to keep up with all that.

That said, I don't really "get" most of the commercials out now-a-days.

Take the superbowl, for example. I thought at least half of them were ridiculous. Some I just didn't "get", and some i chuckled. But for 3 million dollars for a 30 second spot, I thought most of them wasted their money.

Still, no one asked my opinion. And the truth about advertising is that the stupider, wilder, more riduculous the commercial, the more people talk about it. The more people remember and talk about it, the more "free" advertising they get. So, in essence, they did their job.

Likely, they will get more outrageous and stupid in the future.

Sad, but true.

[augidog]

love your optimistic signature...but as you say "the times, they are a'changing" and yes it's only my opinion, but i'm not optimistic about the direction society's chosen. i too saw some of the superbowl, later through replays...and what was focused on disgusted me.

granted, it's not my world any more, i'm ok with that...still it seems pretty dumb to be aware of the problems yet continue to play along.

[cntrydncr223]

Thanks on the sig...

I think it's still our world. I think it's what we make it. I think we are the one's who decide the direction society is evolving in.

I don't watch TV shows, buy products, etc., that I don't endorse. The problem is, those shows, products, etc., are being created out of neccessity. Neccessity creates demand.

I'm ok with that. I'm ok with your likes being different from mine. I'm ok with not liking your likes, and vice versa. And I'm ok with the new era's way of communicating. I think it's healthy that they DO communicate. I imagine our predecessors felt the same about our hippie movement (I don't know how old you are, but I'm a baby boomer. I wasn't in the hippie age, came right after it, but the analogy remains).

It's all circumspect. Age and decade dependant. I don't care for the rap music or most of the shows that are called "comedies". I think they are mostly intelligence insulting and stupid, not a bit funny (with the canned laughter). But I have to ask myself, is that expression, which includes rap, tattoos, piercings, etc., allowing the up and coming and younger generations to express what might come out as repressed anger later? Hey, I'm no psychologlst (heck, I can't even spell the word!!), but I think if that's the case, then I'm all good with it. So long as I don't have to play (meaning get tattoos or piercings), I vote for equal rights.

I continually ask myself, what can I do? There's a saying I try to live by which goes "Be the leader you were waiting for". I work with some young folks as well as a variey of folks (local Buddhist leader). We allow them to express themselves (without vulgarity or slander) in a way that's healthy for them, and then open horizons, introduce ideas, and share experiences in hopes to create a better society, one person at a time.

Without hope, what do you have left? Ah, yes, but I'm the philosophical sort...

[augidog]

heh...and i used to be idealistic, now i'm just (viewed as) a cranky cynic. but there's a place for my point of view...balance is everything in the long run.

me too "baby-boomer" (search "rocky flats truth force" i was there) and what's a bit sad is that it is our age-group currently leading the business world & manipulating the upcoming leaders for profit. predators nurturing predators.

actually, i'm not all that fatalistic, just worn out with caring too much. since it's not "my world" anymore i've withdrawn and live my little life on my little bike. yaknow something? life got larger for me after i made the move. there's nothing like doing 30mph on a bicycle through the cascade mountains to remind you just how small you really are.

when i'm travelling, my phone is my entire infrastructure...i just hope i can continue to afford to use it. since my demographic doesn't factor, veteran on a fixed income, i feel helpless & voiceless...and so i shake my fist and rant.

[cntrydncr223]

I hear ya, I feel ya.

I have to believe we can change the world for the better, but it won't happen without positive and consistant energy.

Be the change you want to see ~ Ghandi
You can't change what you down own ~ Dr. Phil