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