Failed marketing campaigns

Ok, I'm not in marketing nor do I track advertising campaigns. But this morning I was thinking about weird super bowl commercials. Don't ask why.

Not this year, and not last one, but a recent super bowl they had this weird commercial that advertised M-Life. And it wasn't just one commercial - one commercial you can ignore. There were like five or something. The thing is that even though you could tell it was advertising M-Life (because it used that word), you couldn't tell what M-Life was. Moreover, if you thought M-Life was short for Metropolitan Life (the insurance company) you would be wrong.

I mean there are bad jeans commercials out there, but you can at least say after the commercial "they were trying to advertise jeans and they failed." All this series of commercials showed was people talking about "getting an M-Life" and belly buttons. The best response at the time would have been "these marketing jerks should get a mm... life"

So cutting to the chase, in case you are like most people and forgot all about M-Life after the campaign came to its miserable end, M-Life was an advertisement for AT&T wireless. The natural reaction to this information is one of disgust. "Why did I spend any time thinking about this?" Bear with me here.

Belly buttons are not a good symbol for wireless - agreed. The mystery of the unknown "M-Life" is disappointing when it talks about something so mundane - agreed. They wasted your time - agreed.

And I can agree on a few points on AT&Ts side: 1) you don't win market without taking risks 2) people can get excited about the lamest things (eg. beeny babies, the "odd" stories section of the internet news) 3) they paid millions of dollars for those spots

But here's the thing. Sure they lost millions of dollars and became universally ridiculed (by those who care about those types of things), but did they really pay for the error of their ways?

There is the intangible loss that hasn't been covered. I mean let's think about it for one second. When a large corporation has so little respect for the average person, it's stunning. It's breathtaking actually.

Why doesn't our economy work in a positive way? Why don't companies strive to lead the nation to higher ethics? You'll have to forgive the bald idealism of the last question, but it's difficult for me comprehend the complete failure of the real world to put up any kind of pretense of an effort of becoming a better place to live in.

Let's examine the type of person that M-Life was being marketed to. First, this is a person who like mysteries and doesn't mind that the mystery was artificially created. This is a person who doesn't spend much time examining the circumstances of what they get interested in. I like a good football game, but the super bowl has too many commercial breaks. It's watched by something like a quarter of the world, and companies cling to that opportunity and leach every ounce of potential consumer brain wave. But this person does not consider this situation, they just like mysteries.

Second, this person is not disappointed to learn the solution to the mystery is wireless phone service. Somehow wireless technology is either new to them, or still worth thinking about. Although the information conveyed in these commercials has no depth, it must be enough to keep them interested after this person has discovered what M-Life is. Essentially this person has lived on Mars until they watched the super bowl, and like the idea of cell phones more than the game that was stopped so that they could see this commercial.

Third, this person overlooks or doesn't mind that they were compared to a newly born child. In the womb, we are all "wired" to our mothers. We got all of our nutrition through our umbilical cord. And to examine the analogy further, our phone company is therefore compared to our mother. This person is either a person who has an intimate relationship with their phone company, or gets monthly utility bills from their mother.

This is how AT&T defines their customer base. The cold, football-hating Martian that is living an unexamined life. AT&T should not have as much money as it does if this is how it is going to spend it. The lack of responsibility is more stark when you think about how that money could have been spent.

I understand that they made a mistake. And I can forgive them. And with the problems in the world today, I can understand if most people just don't want to think about it. But remember, I'm talking about a large amount of money and world time that could be spent making the world a better place to live in.

The problem is that there is no accountability in this system. I bet that if you have read this far, its because you remember these commercials. But did anyone ever come forward and apologize to you? I don't know why I should forgive people who don't ask for an apology.

If they don't ask for an apology, they probably don't think they did anything wrong. If they don't think they did anything wrong, they'll do it again. Maybe they'll market some product to customers they define as rich, mental patients, who like to look at half naked goats. It's just insulting, and a waste, and it will happen again.