Switch to AT&T Or Die In a Fiery Explosion!

Image by Aaron Landry via Flickr

So, here I am watching a bit of the Giants/Cardinals game and on comes the latest in a series of AT&T mobile ads that demonstrates the consequences of not using AT&T wireless.

In one, a guy misses out on concert tickets because he doesn’t get service in a bar.  In another, a guy is stuck with two techno-ravers in a crappy youth hostel because his phone doesn’t work in a foreign country.  Inconvenient?  Sure.  Maybe even unfortunate.

But I guess it wasn’t convincing enough.

Now comes their latest ad, in which a local news reporter is BLOWN UP AND KILLED due to his use of an inferior wireless service!  Oh, and his cameraperson dies, too, just for good measure.

I can’t wait to see what they do when this doesn’t move the dial.

When New Media Goes Bad! Episode 2 – Sprint Instinct

Sometimes a scheme comes along that just ticks off every one of my “this is terrible” boxes.

Sprint’s new campaign for the Instinct (the phone that wishes it was an iPhone but it isn’t so it’s just lame) includes a contest whereby you insert a very ugly video of a hand holding an instinct phone into your YouTube video.  In return, you will be entered to win $10,000.

This video explains:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gfp1vRNo7Zk&hl=en]

Here’s the thing: we all hate this sort of product placement so why would we want to inflict it on our friends, the only people likely to be watching our videos in the first place?

Way to go Sprint! First your idiot CEO runs his email address at the end of all those ads and then never replies to email I send him and now you want me to make my own videos horrible for you?

I can’t wait for my iPhone!

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