Friday, June 12, 2009

Advertising mis-messaging

As I was sitting waiting for the rather inept customer services representative to confirm some details on upgrading my mobile contract, I was struck by a huge advert at M1 showing a charming chappie atop a government housing complex in Singapore. He was strumming his guitar and dreaming of starting his own band; the bass player would be in Peru, the drummer in Tasmania, the mixing done in some hip European capital and the whole ensemble beamed "live" from a cafe in boondocks of Singapore.


I then glanced to the text on the right of the picture declaring something which made me frown, then widen my eyes in disbelief and finally laugh.

It says, if you can't read it below: "The devices which make all of this possible aren't here yet. But the mobile network already is. The new M1 Network."

Staggered at the creative crassness, I was amazed at a company's core message on one of its supposed key differentiators stating that while the underlying nuts and bolts are in place, you can't actually do any of the things we claim you can...and by the way, that's not our fault, but rather the fault of the "device" people - whoever they may be.

Is this the best they could come up with?
Appalled - absolutely appalled.

If they weren't so cheap I'd switch networks....there you have it: I'm a cheap charlie. On the plus side, if I weren't a customer, then I would probably never have seen this ad and thus have nothing to blog about today.

Every cloud...


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