Thursday, April 21, 2005

Buyer beware



A commuting mishap left me killing time on the platform of an unfamiliar station out in suburbia this evening. Gazing to the platform opposite, I saw this ad for the fictional Wasp T12 Speechtool handset, a key prop in the Nathan Barley series on Channel 4 (which I have blogged about previously). This is real guerilla marketing - there is no mention of the show or any C4 logo anywhere. In this part of London, where there are lots of people reading little newspapers with big headlines, I noticed more than one person looking at this and trying to figure out if it was real or not. Sad comment on telecom marketing (and, I guess, on the show's viewing figures) that most seemed to have great difficulty in working it out. I imagine the realworld (a term I use loosely) handset makers have enough on their plates without having to deal with non-existent competitors - particularly ones which promise "TV cast hijack function," "text abuse dictionary" and "twin MP3 turntables." I must go into Carphone Warehouse and ask for a Wasp T12, and see their response.

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