So the new T-Mobile commercials for their 4G phone have been playing just about every second I turn on the TV. The first commercial they started playing was…boring. I always changed the channel or attempted to tune out the endless droning of the girl. I had seen the commercial about 30 times, at least, and had never gotten the point. Mostly because I am an AT&T customer and I don’t really want to listen to T-Mobile bashing my cell phone provider.
Then, I saw the second commercial they released:
Upon seeing this one, I realized that this was a parody (almost) of the Mac VS PC commercials that had been successful at helping Apple to dominate some of the shares that PC had in the computer market.
See example of the Apple ad
The commercials then made sense to me and I understood the angle they are trying to get at. In some ways, it’s great in theory, like trying to beat Apple at its own game (using the iPhone 4 as an example). There are some huge problems though.
1. The Apple ads are funny. The Mac guy is funny and cute in a nerdy way. The PC guy is still likeable, although we can tell he is the antagonist, and their witty banter is different and stands out from the many monotonous ads.
2. All three characters in the T-Mobile ads are…not funny. Like I said before, the commercials bored me. The girl’s voice is very monotone. She isn’t that attractive (sorry to fuel the stereotype that women on TV have to be pretty..but it’s kind of true) and she doesn’t have an intelligent dialogue with the iPhone guy, who is also minimally attractive and not funny whatsoever.
3. You can’t make fun of Mac using its own commercial where it’s mocking another brand already. I feel like if this starts to become a trend, the ad world will explode. You can’t try to parody their own style of commercial to make fun of them and do it badly.
Overall, their commercials leave a lot to be desired and still make me change the channel every time they come on.
Briana Wucinski 