Whack-a-mole with the "Telecon" mashup

May 26, 2006 2:19 AM

[Telecom] has used confusion as its chief marketing tool This quote from New Zealand's Telecom's CEO is used to set up this mashupof one of their advertisements. The original had kids praising the company; in this version they're saying they've been shafted. Telecom, naturally, has been trying ever since to get it off the internet - crying "Copyright!" (mirrors in the comments here)
posted by slightlybewildered (7 comments total)

It's funny, but is it a mashup?
posted by three blind mice at 2:56 AM on May 26, 2006

three blind mice, leave it be man. Leave it be. It's a fight we can't win.
posted by Jimbob at 2:58 AM on May 26, 2006

*blushes* Russell Brown called it one, and I thought he knew what he was talking about cos he's the new media guy commentat0r guy round these parts.
posted by slightlybewildered at 3:00 AM on May 26, 2006

Southern hemisphere? Probably a mashdown.

And that CEO sucks, whether clockwise or counter-so.
posted by hal9k at 4:30 AM on May 26, 2006

Our chief marketing tool is surprise! Surprise and fear! Fear and surprise!
posted by schoolgirl report at 7:07 AM on May 26, 2006

Thanks for the link to that quote - it's refreshing to hear the truth out in the open once in a while.

This is no surprise. All the telco's, cable co's and mobile providers package their offerings, especially the emerging technologies to give the least choice and the maximum return.

I work close to the ad industry, and although no-one has ever so bluntly said "confuse'em", there has been emphasis placed on downplaying package details and value points, in favour of fluffing up the hipness and convenience of these overpriced bundled plans.

As most of you know, there are other less expensive plans from most suppliers. But they don't usually advertise'em, you sometimes have to dig to get to them.

I can't recall the source, but I do recall hearing an industry rep justify this approach as something of an affluence test - if you stay with an overpriced plan and don't ferret out the better deal, than it's OK cos you can apparently afford to be gouged. If you can't afford it, you won't get it, or will drop the plan quickly.
posted by Artful Codger at 7:44 AM on May 26, 2006

I laughed. Because, as of next week, I'll be unemployed - made redundant from Telstra, the Australian equivalent of Telecom NZ.

(Don't cry for me - they payed me a ridiculous amount while I worked there, and are paying me an equally ridiculous amount to go.)

Confusion? That's been standard operating practice for marketing in the telecomms industry for years. It's the closest they can come to outright lying whilst staying within the law.

The downside of having choice is having to make choices. Marketers have known for years that the average person can't cope with more than about 3 options of similar validity - so they make sure there's always 4 or 5. Throw in a few competitors doing the same thing, and it quickly rises to 20 choices - enough to overwhelm all but the most determined. Everybody else falls back on gut feeling, loyalty, or personal recommendation - and "branding" is the basis of all 3.
posted by Pinback at 10:22 PM on May 26, 2006