I was cruising through Youtube when this featured ad by AT&T caught my eye. It starts “sometime in the future” with the presidential inaugural speech of the 57th president, and cuts to an old couple, the president’s parents, proudly cuddling in the crowd. Then it begins to rewind through the parents’ lives until we come to a scene with a young man standing in front of a train about to leave. He catches the eye of a pretty woman in the window, and thanks to AT&T having the “fastest 3G network,” is able to instantaneously change his ticket and get on the train with the woman. As we know from the beginning of the ad, it’s happily ever after.
This modern fairytale would be sweet and cute, if it weren’t just that: a fairytale.
AT&T is the most unreliable network in the US. In reality, that poor kid would be stuck there frantically and frustratedly pushing his phone’s buttons as the train sped off, watching his chance of fathering the future president fade into the distance.
Now my question is, could this be called false advertising? After all, it’s a well-known fact that AT&T has the poorest service and connectibility. Just take a look at the results of this year’s Consumer Reports reader survey, which ranks Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile along with some regional carriers. Readers were asked to grade each carrier on several criteria including value, voice service quality, data service quality and customer support. AT&T received the lowest possible rating of “Worse” in eight out of nine categories, managing to eke out a next-to-lowest rating for SMS service quality. See for yourself:
So where’s the line drawn? Can AT&T continue to advertise themselves as the “fastest 3G network?” Should they?
I think you know my opinion from the tone of this post, but I’m curious to hear yours.FacebookShareStumbleUponDiggEmailPrintAT&T, Consumer Reports, fastest 3G network
This entry was posted on December 6, 2010, 7:30 pm and is filed under Brands, Controversial, False advertising, Youtube. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0.You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.LikeBe the first to like this post.Comments ( 0 )Leave a CommentLeave a Reply Cancel replyYour email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *Name *Email *WebsiteCommentYou may use these HTML tags and attributes: Notify me of follow-up comments via email.
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