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AT&T Flashmob Commercial Falls Flat with 4G

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If you have watched any amount of TV in the past month you will have seen an AT&T commercial featuring a lone flashmob dancer in a busy train station. The ad is designed to tell you why you need AT&T’s 4G network, but instead of delivering a funny, the ad shows that AT&T needs to figure out what it’s 4G network is good for.

https://youtu.be/bd8ppk0UCx8

AT&T Flashmob Commercial 4G

Emails download all attachments in AT&T's World

Rather than show off an activity that benefits from high-speed 4G download speeds, AT&T decides to opt for an email with attached PDF. This isn’t your ordinary email though. Unlike the email messages sent on pretty much every device, this poor soul has an email client that won’t let him read the text until a large PDF downloads.

Why is AT&T trying so hard to deliver a fast dose of comedy instead of showing off what you can do with a 4G connection? The answer is simply that AT&T doesn’t have the network or speed to back it up.

AT&T has already been caught slowing down uploads, which means it would have taken the sender longer to send the media rich notice and the current download speeds still drop in close to 3G for many users, which means the poor sap would still be dancing by himself.

Rather than trying to be cutesy and crafty, we wish AT&T would focus on showing what you can actually do on their 4G network when they aren’t slowing down speeds and causing premature flashmob dancing of their own.

Hopefully AT&T will follow-up with a commercial like Verizon’s 4G spot which shows off what you can do with 4G in a setting where speed matters.

https://youtu.be/OhNFE6V8QRQ

By this point you’ve probably picked up on the fact that I have issues with commercials that don’t match up with real world use. If that bothers you, trust me, you wouldn’t want to watch a movie with me.

 

13 Comments

13 Comments

  1. ____

    06/21/2011 at 3:34 pm

    Well said and well written Josh.  Clear and concise.  Points to the disparity with att’s marketing gimmick that relies on half-truths and distortions (do they think they are Steve Jobs/Apple?) with reality of failure after failure and a cobbled together network that would make frankenstein cringe.

    • matt t

      08/18/2011 at 12:34 am

      This is the most annoying commercial in the world. If you are in the phillidelphia area, this commercial will show up more then ten times on average between noon and ten.

    • matt t

      08/18/2011 at 12:34 am

      This is the most annoying commercial in the world. If you are in the phillidelphia area, this commercial will show up more then ten times on average between noon and ten.

  2. Jadenrosen

    06/22/2011 at 4:42 am

    Who gives a damn sir? Honestly… Verizon commercials are boring as hell and most of America doesn’t care about facts. AT&T has good heartfelt commercials for the people that use it’s service, not the 1/360th of the population that knows what 4G is. When a businessman sees that commercial he thinks, “gee getting email faster would be great”!

  3. Mbish8

    06/24/2011 at 7:40 pm

    I think the commercial is great!

  4. Schmuck

    06/25/2011 at 9:15 pm

    I don’t have a cell phone.  Insulting – not to mention lame –  commercials like the flash mob make me want to vomit.

    • Phil Milson

      08/15/2011 at 11:00 pm

      I also do NOT own a cellular phone, never have and never will…The Flash mob concept is spreading throughout the US and Europe and is used by blacks to intimidate, rob and rape White citizens.  I have emailed At&T about this and they did not even have the decency to reply.  Shame on them!

  5. Spsmith316

    07/10/2011 at 9:58 pm

    I absolutely HATE the commercial. What idiot would send an “Urgent Update” as an email with a PDF attached instead of just sending it as a text message?!? Even if you had to send it as an email, why would you send a 5 word sentence as a PDF?!? Unfortunately, ATT is playing to the idiot crowd who doesn’t know any better. 

  6. Danahill

    07/13/2011 at 3:02 am

    In the Chicago area, “flash mobs” refer to gangs essentually showing up out of nowhere, not random acts of stupidness.  Ironic that they say in AT&T’s commercial “don’t be the last to know” when apparently they themselves ARE the last to know.

  7. Dolfanwest

    07/17/2011 at 1:24 am

    VERY ANNOYING COMMERCIAL!!!  getting tired of it.  please stop running it..

  8. Anonymous

    09/03/2011 at 5:27 am

    It makes me laugh every time when he flaps his arms with his hands under his chin.  It is so stupid that it is funny.

  9. Joe

    09/09/2011 at 7:26 pm

    I think the commercial has outdone its welcome, not that it was welcome in the first place. It’s been running for months now and it’s getting pretty annoying. I just recently realized it was for at&t. How much money are they spending on something that is growing to be the #1 hated thing on the planet? They need to pull the plug on the thing and let it die already!

  10. Llz

    09/10/2011 at 4:29 am

    Just read the comment from Joe about the FlashMob At&T mobile phone commercial. I agree totally with what he said. I feel the same way about the husband telling his gardening wife he just signed the family up for unlimited calling mobile to mobile. She in turn is quite snip and I feel belittling her husband. I quickly turn the channel as soon as that commercial comes on.  It’s disgusting and demaining to husbands around the country.

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