Marketing tactic: Make fun of your demographic

So AT&T has a pretty brilliant ad campaign going on for the Motorola Backflip. Their awesome “breaking news” parody TV spots pretty hilarious, I think. So often people treat their inane news via social media as some sort of earth-shattering announcement. We’re all guilty of it. But at the same time, this news is important to us, and the Backflip seems to aggregate all this “personal news” straight to your mobile desktop.

I like the delivery system of this campaign. It wasn’t expensive, only presents a quick one-liner, uses current Social Media terminology (sites/words like twitpic, wall post, etc.) and seems easy to produce more spots with relevant tech references. These one-liners are so often things we’re reading online. They’re short and sweet, funny. Plus, one way to get people to spread videos online is to market directly to the social media crowd (they’re the most prone to spread this content, obviously).

Not that I’m trading my iPhone in for it or anything.

Here are a few more solid TV spots from the campaign. I especially love the shout out to Turkey Sandwich bad ass Neal Stewart*:

*I’ll have you know that the Turkey Sandwich Report blog is on the first page of organic search results for “Turkey Sandwich”.

There’s nothing to see here. Well, that’s not true.

I’m just testing a post to twitter plugin for wordpress called Tweetly Updater. Nothing to see here. Well, there’s something to see here:

Oh, Chief Wiggum, you’re the best.

US Senators are like dinosaurs.

My family been paying pretty close attention to the Financial Reform Bill, which was passed by the Senate tonight. We’re paying attention for lots of reasons, but chiefly because of Senator Tom Harkin’s amendment to the bill that would cap ATM fees at 50 cents. He got something similar passed in Iowa. This amendment didn’t make it into the final bill, but Harkin sounds like he’s going to try to slip it in somewhere else instead.

My brother recently purchased a business that deals with ATMs*. Whereas I understand that the fees are sometimes high, it’s not like one company is taking all the money. Everyone has their hands in these fees, including the ATM owner, Bar/Restaurant owner the ATM is in, and the company that handles the transaction. If ATM operators had to cap ATM fees at 50 cents, most of them would lose money or have to close their businesses altogether. In a time of economic crisis, I don’t personally think that it’s a good idea to close any businesses, especially those who provide a service to consumers (albeit at a small fee, especially if you take out more than $20).

Which brings me to my point of this. Nebraska’s Democratic Senator Ben Nelson has never used an ATM. So he’s voting on an aspect of a bill where he literally has no experience! While nobody can truly be versed on everything, ATMs are a basic part of life for probably 90% of Americans. I’m sure Sen. Nelson isn’t the only one, I mean even George Bush (Sr.) was AMAZED when seeing a supermarket scanner. In 1992.

I want representatives who I can identify with and who will represent the values that me and my friends have. It’s about time that some of the older guard in the House & Senate step away from their responsibilities to make room for people who better represent their constituents. I respect their contributions to society. It’s just time for some people to move on. To golf courses, private yachts, and a beach house in Bermuda.

• “ATM Machines” is redundant, people.

P.S.: It has been a while since I have posted. I’m working on my SXSW recap and it’s close to being ready, but I am going to try to start writing more regularly. I have a lot to say, and this is my platform to say it. I plan on keeping things relatively short, but not everything fits into a tweet. And this way, I am keeping track of my own thoughts on my own server on my own blog.)