Thursday, February 5, 2009

Romanticizing: The U.S. Cellular Commercial with the Smiling Guy on his Cell Phone

This U.S. Cellular commercial really seems to romanticize the power and importance of a phone company. It makes the argument that this cell phone, by connecting you with other people, will spread love and make the world a better place. (The company’s latest slogan is “Believe in something better.” ) While the argument itself is somewhat ridiculous, because don’t all phone companies connect you with other people? the way the commercial makes the argument is over the top. It starts out with a guy receiving a call, which makes him smile. Then, other people see him smiling, and they smile too! And then a poster of a smiling mouth is unrolled down the side of a building, and balloons are released into the air, and clearly the world is a better place because this guy is smiling about a call, right?
This commercial makes a phone something it is not, and could not ever be. It cannot make people happy; it cannot make the world better. Maybe a conversation you have can make you happy, but it’s not your phone company that is making these changes, or releasing balloons. The commercial goes so over the top with the way this guy seems to lift everyone around him’s spirits that it loses its credibility. It also romanticizes the potential a smile has to change its environment. Sure, smiling can be contagious, if someone is smiling at you, but personally, seeing someone talking on their phone and smiling at their own conversation would not make me smile. Maybe this commercial would be more realistic if they had stuck with the idea of connecting people, but by bringing balloons into the picture and arguing they are making the world better, they make the company something that it is not.

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