Friday, January 16, 2009

CNBC sports reporter claims BlackBerry Bold tv ad is innacurate

Darren Rovell of CNBC went on a rant about how "idiotic" and "careless" RIM was for showing a commercial where the runner exceeds the world record pace for the race he is supposedly running. O.K., so Darren is obviously a track and field uber-geek. I get it, I do. I comment to people about the absolutely ridiculous things that advertisements have people doing with their cell phones. Here is where Darren and I differ. I get it, it's called advertising, not documentary. I observe the embellishments, but I don't call out the advertiser for using exaggeration to market their product. Darren did.

So I called Darren out with an e-mail. To his credit, he reprinted it with a couple others at http://www.cnbc.com/id/28639892?__source=RSS*blog*&par=RSS.

Here is my e-mail:
"While you are nitpicking your way through telecom ads, will you also address the following:

Comcast High Speed Internet with PowerBoost – Is PowerBoost approved for animal testing by the FDA?

Verizon Wireless – How do all of those Verizon employees get away with blocking traffic and following people around all day? I use Verizon and haven’t seen any of them. Am I being discriminated against?

AT&T Wireless – I thought Wisconsin had more bars in more places. Is the FCC looking into this false claim by AT&T? Is the Wisconsin attorney general?

Sprint Nextel – Is it legal to haul school age children in the back of delivery vans?

Darren, I think you have a lot of articles to write if you want to fix the world one TV ad at a time. Where was your advertising analysis during the campaign season? There is an area that does need help.

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