Sprint's Present to Twitter

The spot above created by Goodby, Silverstein & Partners must have been Sprint’s gift to Twitter. What other reason could they have for giving them free product placement in their television spot that I believe is airing nationally. The spot gives a shout out to several Web 2.0 product and services such as YouTube and Google. The question is why are they doing this in a nationally aired spot? Are these other Internet companies helping pay for the spot?

I read a few blogs that claim the mobile phone network provider wanted to show that their network and can be used for more then just making phone calls on the go. Almost everybody now has a device that that makes calls, browses the net, sends email, and connects to social networks. But the question still remains, why give those other companies free advertising? The title of this post is “Sprint's Present to Twitter” and that’s because they get a name mention and their stupid birds flying all over the screen. No offense to Twitter, of course.

Usually when products and services other then the one being promoted are mentioned, they are a direct competitor and they aren’t usually mentioned in a positive light. Also, the other social networks mentioned in the spot are mentioned quickly unlike Twitter and its blue birds.

Anyway, if anyone can find solid reasoning for all these product placements in this ad please comment and I’ll thank you and link to your site on my blog if you have a site.

Best,
A.B.

A Note on the Superbowl

I was discussing the Superbowl ads with some buddies at work and they thought all of them sucked. Some of the ads they thought were a little funny but not worth the 3 million spent on them. Here are the most obvious reasons why:

1. The ads were over done to the point of annoyance in the eyes of one of my buddies. (The talking baby has been going for a few years.)

2. Most of the ads, my buddies felt didn't take into consideration that our country is in a recession.

3. Most, if not all the ads were not funny. If they were a little funny, my buddies at least couldn't remember the product being advertised.

Finally after thinking about it for a bit maybe the concept of the "Free Doritos" spot was taken from the Sprint 2006 Superbowl Commercial below. Most likely I'm wrong.



But who cares? I thought at least some of the spots were good, which after all, is the case every year.

Best,
A.B.