Sprint must be the dumbest cell phone company around right now. First, they have those black and white ads with Dan Hesse, their CEO, walking down the street. Who is going to buy a cool phone because the CEO tells you about the company? I can answer that. Nobody. They also have that annoying classical music playing throughout the commercials. You can see it here:
I decided to watch 24 on Fox’s website since I missed last week’s episode because I was working. This is a great idea and a great service, especially for a series like 24, where it is essential to see every episode in the correct order so that the show makes sense. The only problem is that Fox has to put commercials into the middle of the show.
I understand completely why they need to do it and it makes perfect sense, but the execution is curious at best, moronic at worst, which brings me back to Sprint.
There are 7 commercial spots during a 43 minute episode of 24. For whatever reason, Sprint and Fox decided the best way to advertise would be for the same company to put the same ad in all 7 spots. This is a horrible idea in the first place, but its even worse when the 7 commercials are all Sprint’s horrible commercials. Not only are the commercials bad, but they are also ironic. The phone they are advertising is called the Rant. Whoever named that phone must have had this commercial in mind because that’s what it inspires: Rants.
By the 3rd commercial break, I vowed I would write a Rant in my blog. By the 5th, I decided that I would never buy a sprint product and would look to watch 24 any other way possible, including the myriad of pirated broadcasts. By the 6th, I was about to break my computer and by the 7th, I was thinking to myself that I wouldn’t complain if Mr. Bauer had to use some of his tricks of the trade to get some info out of Mr. Hesse. Luckily for Mr. Hesse, my computer and me, there wasn’t an 8th commercial break.
I do not know what both Sprint and Fox were thinking, but whatever it was, they failed miserably. Not only do I now hate Sprint, but the repetitive commercials are going to drive me away from Fox’s service, onto a different website that does not make Fox any money. If companies want to continue to make online content like this a viable ancillary revenue stream, they are going to have to learn to continue to adapt. They cannot show the same commercial, even a great one, 7 times to a viewer in 40 minutes. It will never work.
Maybe someone at AT&T or Verizon paid Fox to put seven Sprint commercials in a row during 24. That’s about the only explanation that makes sense.
Here’s the offending ad:
6 Comments
you can find 24, legally, at hulu.com
you can find 24, legally, at hulu.com
as a jumbo sized fan of watching show like that on my computer, i cant stand those kind of advertisements. So many shows i watch like that have those 4-7 30 second commercials that you have to watch and like you pointed out they are all the exact shame commercial. change it up give me some diversity. when one of those comes on i typically role over in my bed and take a 30 second naps.
as a jumbo sized fan of watching show like that on my computer, i cant stand those kind of advertisements. So many shows i watch like that have those 4-7 30 second commercials that you have to watch and like you pointed out they are all the exact shame commercial. change it up give me some diversity. when one of those comes on i typically role over in my bed and take a 30 second naps.
I tried hulu this week for the office and it was much better. there were only 5 commercials in a 45 minute episode and only two were the same. at least somebody is getting it right.
I tried hulu this week for the office and it was much better. there were only 5 commercials in a 45 minute episode and only two were the same. at least somebody is getting it right.