Sunday 4 October 2009

T is for "Torture"

So, at the beginning of the year, T-Mobile began a new advertising campaign with this:



The first time I saw this advert, I loved it. A simple idea executed well, incorporating a contemporary phenomenon (the flashmob) with neither audacity and claims of innovation, nor seeming to be desperately jumping on a bandwagon. I had no problem with T-Mobile at this point.

They then followed up with this advert:



I'm not quite sure how they've managed it, but T-Mobile have made me want to kill every single person who was in Trafalgar Square when these adverts were made. Whereas the dance flashmob was charming and came across without ego, the Trafalgar Square karaoke is to me almost the complete opposite. Everyone they show seems like a really annoying self-centred prick. And it doesn't help that none of the people are any good at singing. I know that's not necessarily an issue when it comes to karaoke (I have first hand experience of that), but if I'm at a karaoke night in a pub or a bar and the singing irritates me, I can leave. T-Mobile are shoving these obnoxious music-killers in my face via my very own television. Unfortunately, I can't find a clip of my least favourite of these adverts, which features a load of tossers yelling "Total Eclipse Of The Heart" as if Satan himself were poking a tender area of their bodies with a particularly sharp pitchfork to make sure they continue. Every time this version of the Trafalgar karaoke comes on, I hope with every fibre of my being that they show a special extended cut, where the Square is napalmed from above at the end, scorching each obnoxious twat into oblivion, before T-Mobile's jolly piano jingle rounds things off.

And then, most recently, T-Mobile gave us these adverts:





Again, I can't find a video clip of the TV version of this campaign, but hopefully if you haven't seen it you get the idea from these images. I can't decide if these grate on me more than the Trafalgar karaoke or not. The people in them are either incredibly dull, incredibly stupid or incredibly irritating. If the best thing you can think of to do with free texts for life is to have a really long argument with someone, then you either have serious problems or need to get out more. The girl who claims the idea is mind-boggling is equally irritating, as she's either incredibly easily impressed or incredibly thick. And the guy who says he'd start a revolution can just piss off.

So there you have it, a beginner's guide to how T-Mobile went from seriously impressing me to driving me to mass homicide in less than a year. Their next set of adverts could be pivotal in the direction my life follows.

Blogathon score: 4

3 comments:

James said...

Damnit Bambi I wanted to write something about this. That guy who says he'd start a revolution irritates the crap out of me too. I just want to ask him:

How? How in god's name would unlimited texts let you start a revolution? It's not like Lenin had his nokia on him when storming the winter palace or Che was busy thumbing 'still in jungle lol' to Fidel. What are you going to do? Text the 50 names in your phone book repeatedly until they take to the streets?

People like the people in that advert shouldn't really be trusted to handle a phone imo.

TheTelf said...

The first video is ace - I'd never seen it before, and it's really well pulled off.

The Trafalgar square one was annoying because (unlike the first video), the people performing weren't good at their task, and weren't practiced or prepared. Hence far less impressive. There're probably more forgiving songs than Hey Jude, too.

And yes, I'm also annoyed by the current poster adverts. If free communication is the only thing stopping you from completing incredible collaborative projects, I can only imagine your mind is going to be blown when you discover email...

Unknown said...

http://www.visit4info.com/advert/Starting-a-revolution-with-free-texts-for-life-T-Mobile/76352

There's the latest twatfest ad

I think that this is just a campaign that everyone really hates, as I've also had the thought of making some form of internet based comment on it, mine would've consisted of overdubbing the ad with my witty quips / idiocy.

Anyway, here's a "transcript"

"I think i'd probably start a revolution" - of complete twats with far too much money and not enough sense, wait that's not a revolution it's reality.

"Giant pillowfight with everyone in Manchester" - nice and original there, make sure you bring your knives to defend yourselves.

"We'd do a Cong- We'd do a Conga" - I'd hate to be in a conga with him, he can't even finish a simple sentence, how does he expect to do a simple dance?

"We could have massive arguements for days" - yeah that's not possible in this day and age where actually speak to people and seeing them is so bloody difficult, with all the public transport and vehicles.

"I dunno it's mind boggling" - yeah, how incredibly stupid you people are. It's free texts for "life" - ie. till you get pissed off and change operator or they get fed up and drop the concept - not some fabulous new technology or breakthrough.

"ermm" - yeah that's more like it, a sensible answer, where the person in question is wondering "why the hell are they asking me such a stupid question?"

"Wow..." which is followed by "... what a really dumb question to ask me! No piss off!"

There we go, I feel I've vented my spleen somewhat, wait a minute...

"I'd text all the musicians I know and we'd start a superband" - Which would be utter crap! why would having free texts for life make you do that? why wouldn't you do it now? surely if you could start a superband you'd spend the extra few pence it costs you at the moment to do that. Obviously all your musician friends are crap otherwise you'd get off your arse and do it now, wouldn't you mr. generic bloke, WOULDN'T YOU!!!!!

ok I'm done.