I hate this commercial…
… and I’ll tell you why.
This is only one of a many commercials like this. You may have seen one from Sprint that’s very similar: three people are stuck on a ski lift, and the commercial talks about how these three people have awesome Sprint phones so they can visit an alternate reality (be at work, be at the beach, check Facebook, whatever.) Back in the day, when you were stuck with two other people on a ski lift, you might… you know… talk to them. Face to face.
Same thing goes for the Verizon commercial above: you’re camping with your kids, and the little brats are too busy texting to pay attention to what’s going on out there. Developing decent social skills is awkward enough as it is — do kids really need a way out of every uncomfortable situation?
I don’t see how marketers can think this kind of escapism is a virtue. To me, it’s not a selling point at all.
// end rant
