No Female Appeal

I found myself having a very mixed reaction when I first saw the AT&T 'Blanket' commercial.

On the positive side, I definitely was impressed by the visual magnificence of seeing all those buildings and bridges being covered by the orange silk and wondered - as I am sure I was meant to do - how on earth they managed to do it. Amazing! The music was also something that had a real 'feel good' quality to it and made the commercial a pleasure to watch.

However, as a female consumer, it left me cold in a couple of pretty important ways.

Firstly, the message that AT&T covers 93% of Americans made me feel like it was another classic example of the big boys not giving the little guys a chance. I know that the commercial wasn't actually saying that AT&T controlled 93% of all cell phone business, but it came across that way to me. As women, we really don't like the language of 'mine is bigger than yours' and this commercial definitely made me feel like this is what AT&T were saying.

Secondly, although I can totally see that not all women would feel this way, it felt distinctly un-environmentally friendly. In this day and age when we are all tightening our belts and trying to do our bit for the environment, it felt inappropriate to be spending thousands of dollars on creating the impression of buildings being covered by silk. Whether they actually did some of it or it was all computer generated, it certainly made you feel that they were doing it and it smacked of an enormous amount of waste.

I wished I liked it better. I would have unequivocally appreciated its aesthetic beauty and sense of achievement when I was younger, but I guess I have become a little more cynical than I used to be!