Technical Explanation: When sound is produced in Dolby Surround there are four channels of audio information: the usual left and right like your stereo speakers, a center channel and a mono surround channel. All four are encoded digitally into a source, such as a DVD, CD or a television broadcast, and then decoded at the consumers home by their CD players, television or other audio player. The four channels provide a richer more well rounded sound than the typical two channel stereo. It literally seems to surround the listener. 

Layman’s Explanation: If you listen to something produced in Dolby Surround on a good system with a proper speaker set-up it will sound really cool.

With that background under your belt take a look at AT&T ‘s new entry into the cellular industry’s game of can-you-top-this?

If you are missing the irony of this spot please refer to either of the two explanations of how Dolby Surround works.

That little speaker can’t possibly deliver the type of sound Dolby Surround is intended for unless maybe if you are an inch tall and blue like the amazed creatures in the spot. Otherwise color me skeptical. 

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For example, all of the commercials for Motorola’s smart phone the Droid contain a disclaimer that the word is actually a trademark of Lucasfilm. Granted George Lucas gave us R2D2 and C3P0 but who knew you could own a word. If these disclaimers came along after Droid’s marketing began you can bet Motorola didn’t.

Now a disclaimer has appeared on a series of AT&T commercials. The spots show huge pieces of orange fabric being unrolled over buildings and well-known landmarks to illustrate how completely AT&T’s mobile network blankets the country.

The spots are visually engaging and illustrate the point in a unique way. But now at the very end in small type it says, “The artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude have no direct or indirect association with AT&T.”

Huh?!

Some quick research reveals that Christo and Jeanne-Claude are husband and wife artists who have created giant art installations around the world by wrapping entire buildings and geographic areas in different types of cloth. Sound familiar?!

Amongst other things the couple has wrapped the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art; an oceanfront beach in Newport, Rhode Island; and a large part of New York’s Central Park.  You can see pictures at their Web site.

The artists donated the merchandising rights from the New York project to the charitable foundation Nurture New York’s Nature and the Arts which shared proceeds with The Central Park Conservancy. Now AT&T has stolen the idea for an ad campaign.  Silly me! I always thought they called it ad creative for a reason. I’ve never heard it called ad copying.

I realize that modifying someone else’s concept isn’t a new idea, but taking the work of two artists for a cellular network commercial just seems wrong. At the very least the campaign should pay homage to them or make a donation to a charitable organization they have supported.

Instead they get a disclaimer.

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1. AT&T finally grows a pair, goes after Verizon
2. Even Grimace thought this was a dumb St. Pat’s promo from McDonalds
3. WalletPop’s Ad Rant gives us the 10 worst (meh) ads of the decade

In Q4 of 2009, Verizon decided it was going to go head first towards AT&T with a clever little campaign that compared coverage areas.  This is not necessarily a new concept for wireless carriers.  I can remember seeing coverage area maps on pamphlets back when I worked at Radio Shack during college.  However, this one was a little different because it was comparing the “3G” service area coverage.  Here was one of the earlier ads that introduced this concept:

You have to admit, it’s a pretty powerful little idea.  Not only is the map pretty damning, but they threw the “There’s an app for that” line from the iPhone commercials right back in their smug little faces.  It was like they were saying, “hey, nice phone, too bad your service sucks so bad.”  I know you’ve seen these ads, Verizon has been running them constantly, with new variations coming out every week, including some effed up holiday versions that use the “Island of Misfit Toys” from Rudolf (it even had a stop-motion iPhone dancing around in it, damn!).

I personally thought the ads were great, but my problem with them had more to do with the media buy associated with the campaign.  You see, I live in one of the major metro areas where AT&T has great 3G coverage (Los Angeles), but they were obviously running these ads on a national level.  I would look at the map comparison and just say, “so what, Verizon? You’ve got a pretty map, shut up about it already!”  I’m actually on AT&T not because of their fabulous coverage in the states, but because I can keep using my phone when I travel abroad for speaking engagements, international crime sprees, etc.  I could personally give a shit if my 3G coverage extended to Bung Hole, Nebraska, so I thought that Verizon needed to concentrate elsewhere in the country where that map was really making a point.

But wow, did these ads piss of AT&T.  So much so that AT&T even tried to sue Verizon to stop the ads because they claimed that the maps misrepresented AT&T’s true coverage area since they were just comparing apples to apples (or 3G to 3G).  The judge threw out the lawsuit (as he should have, really), Verizon kept coming out with more ads for the rest of the year, and AT&T just looked like a little bitch for awhile there.

Then AT&T sent in a Wilson brother:

AT&T was finally going to make the point it was trying to make in court, which was, “Sure, Verizon has more 3G coverage, but AT&T covers 98% of the US with it’s regular coverage, so stuff it, jackass!”  Plus they were going to call out the fact that their 3G was faster AND you could run data and voice at the same time.  AT&T did a shitload of these ads across TV, radio, and I’m sure in other formats I haven’t even seen.

It was like these two crazy kids were running for student office and Verizon was part of the popular kids and AT&T was in band and never had a shot, but dammit, he was going to try! The little band nerd was going to stay up all night and make smart and funny posters, banners, and button just to get his name out there because he knew that friggin’ rich kid thought she had it in the bag just for showing up, ha ha!  Sure, he lost anyway, but that’s not the point, he tried!  Or something…

Then, the other day while driving home from work on the last day before Christmas vacation, I heard this ad come on the radio:

ATT Mobile – LA Maps

Holy shit!  It’s like AT&T heard my bitching and actually went to the trouble of doing a regionally targeted creative for the Los Angeles market.  Now that’s some damn effort, AT&T!  Way to put your nuts on the glass and tell Verizon, “hey, screw you, man!”

I have to admit, I got a little hard… seriously, a little media wood over an AT&T ad.  See? This is the shit I’m talking about.  Companies putting in some damn effort and intelligence into their campaigns and not letting other companies walk all over them.

Did Microsoft do that with Apple for the “Get a Mac” ads? Not really.  Sure, they did the “I’m a PC” ads and the ads where people got laptops for way cheaper than a Mac, but it took them friggin’ forever to get them out there and when they did, it wasn’t the big “Hey, fuck you, Apple! You get viruses and crash all the damn time, so eat it, ass!” that I was looking for.  Nope, it was pretty much what you would expect from Microsoft, functional, but not flashy.  The cool kids won again.

But AT&T, sacked up and showed up on the seen, bitches.  Nice work guys, you’re going to need that bad ass attitude in 2010 when the iPhones hit the Verizon network.  Wow, that’s going to be some nasty stuff.  When things get tough at my day job, I’m going to sit back and thank the gods of marketing that I don’t have to work for AT&T, because… damn.

J.

Related posts:

1. AT&T & Verizon: I Thought It Was Called Creative [RANT]
2. DTM’s 2010 wish for the advertising biz: cool it with the effing hyperbole

ATT-U-Verse-Radio-Spot-Lucky-Couch

Seriously, I love the way the guy shuts his wife down because he wants to sit on his “lucky couch” during the big game.  I love the sound of frustration in the woman’s voice when she herds the kids down to the basement.  It’s funny as hell and I’m happy to listen to this little gem each and every time it comes on the radio.  Hell, I know a few people who now sing the “game’s starting now… duh duh, duh duh… have fun in the basement!” lyrics when the NFL music comes on after each commercial break.

I get it…

Now here’s the problem… AT&T obviously doesn’t get what their product is actually good for in the first place. You see, the commercial starts with the wife asking our hero if the kids can watch TV in the living room and then the husband says he can’t because the game is coming on and he has to sit on his lucky couch or the team might lose.

Again, funny premise…

However, where it all goes wrong is when the wife, in an impromptu (and completely unnatural) description of the AT&T U-Verse product, explains that with that wonder of product, they can record up to four programs at once and watch them on any TV in the house.

The problem is, that has nothing to do with the friggin’ issue at hand! He’s watching live TV, right fucking now! What good is the fact that you can watch a recorded program on any TV in the house if he’s watching football right then and there? And why drag the innocent kids into the mix? It’s not like what they’re watching is appointment television… in fact, it’s probably just them watching The Lion King, or whatever kids are watching these days, for the 1,067th time this year. Why the fuck does she need to come up there, all high and mighty, and try and push the king of the castle down to the dungeon? I’m not a giant football fan, but I think if this chick tried this one me, I would send her to the basement with the kids out of principle and make her stay there until she learns a little something about modern DVR services.

But yes, very funny ad… clever even… cheers all around.  This may, in fact, be the first entry into a category I like to call “a joke looking for an ad.”  This is when a particularly clever copywriter has been sitting on a joke for some time and, in an act of desperation, illogically attaches it to a commercial. Perhaps.

Then again, it could just be a regular ole’ fuck up. You see below in one of their TV spots, they actually do know how it works:

By the way, I blame AT&T here and not the agency because, while the agency created this goofy error, the CLIENT APPROVED THE DAMN THING! How many people did this thing pass through before it hit the air and not one person raised their hand to say, “um, hey… cute ad, but it really doesn’t work that way.”

You guys are lucky this came out funny…

J.

PS – I know I led with a few links to other sites and a summary of the Tiger Woods crap, but these types of reviews of dead tree advertisers are the real heart of this publication… we just had to figure out the technical stuff with the ads and I had to punt… just sayin’…

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