« What Events Would You Like to Hear About? Monday Links »

June 3, 2007

A Challenge from Virgin Mobile

Note: We've confirmed that this request was legit so we're reposting...
Hey Brownstoners – Virgin Mobile here. We’ve seen the dialogue that’s going back and forth. Since we started Virgin Mobile, we’ve always been dedicated to what consumers want. So here’s an invitation to have a say in the You Rule campaign. We’d love to see your own version of a Bed-Stuy, You Rule ad. Just follow the format of the ad already in place and let’s see what you’ve got. We'd like to print up the best of the bunch in your neighborhood. We’ll check back in on Monday morning. Thanks again for all of your thoughts and ideas.
Jayne Wallace
Virgin Mobile USA
'Phone or Die' in Bed Stuy [Brownstoner]

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.brownstoner.com/mte/mt-tb.cgi/1284

Comments

Well, they've got chitzpah anyway--LOL

Posted by: Bob Marvin at June 1, 2007 7:12 PM

Will we get paid?

Posted by: The Changeling at June 1, 2007 7:16 PM

It just occured to me that Jayne, who's probably working out of Omaha,or some equally god-forsaken hole (Manhattan, maybe?) seems to think that all the comments making fun of her ad were from Bed-Stuy. maybe she thinks that all of brownstone Bklyn IS Bed-Stuy :-)

Posted by: Bob Marvin at June 1, 2007 7:36 PM

"your neighborhood?" ignint.

Posted by: franz fanonynous at June 1, 2007 7:43 PM

Has anyone checked to authentic the "challenge?" Sources people.bojolais

Posted by: Anonymous at June 1, 2007 7:54 PM

How exciting but I'm busy.

Posted by: anon at June 1, 2007 8:14 PM

I'm from Bed-Stuy and I relish this challenge! I'm going to write something clever, witty and creative! However, I'm going to get it copy righted before I publish it on this board to ensure that Virgin Mobile doesn't infringe upon my intellectual property rights without first giving me adequate and just consideration!!

VM, you must "pay to play". Aiiighhht?!? Now that's "do or die"!!

Posted by: Stuy Heights at June 1, 2007 8:31 PM

Agreed. Advertisers are at best cultural thieves. Do your own market research. If people wanted to put their creativity to work for you I would guess they would be, duh, in advertising, and want to get paid for it. First you try to insult the area's residents with your goofy ad and then you try to rip them off. Maybe you could at least offer college credit? Not like Virgin Mobile is actually a good cause or anything. Get over yourselves.

Posted by: Anonymous at June 1, 2007 8:34 PM

I really like most of Virgin's advertising-- they're one of about four companies in the world with some wit (Apple, W Hotels, and JetBlue being the others). So I found this ad surprisingly "off"--not hip, not savvy, sounding rather like a Dockers-wearing white guy in Long Island wrote it. And I think it's kinda cool and smart that Jayne responded to the dialogue here. On the other hand, as suggested by The Changeling, I personally get paid when I write... I'm not eligible, anyway, because I don't know anything about Bed-Stuy. but I'll be reading. And any airline that gives massages is gonna get my business sooner or later.... love to Richard!

Posted by: bob999 at June 1, 2007 8:36 PM

Just the whole conceit of 'You Rule' is wrong for BK as a whole, let along Bed Stuy.

When I hear that phrase 'You Rule' I have a picture of some bubbly valley girl cheerleader. Definitely screams West Coast.

Bed Stuy, like totally....

Posted by: Dave BS at June 1, 2007 9:12 PM

I didn't need Virgin to tell me that I rule - I've known that ever since BK or McD or whoever it was commanded me to "have it your way?"
All I need - more selling.
In the produce biz they say "sell it or smell it." Well, I'm smelling it, alright.

Posted by: Anonymous at June 1, 2007 9:17 PM

I take offense to that as a "valley guy." Until you walk a mile in the valley you have no right to judge people from the San Fernando Valley. Most of you people take yourselves too seriously where you feel obliged to talk about how authentic we all are here in Brooklyn and how an outsider could never get it. Get over yourselves; it's just an ad.

Posted by: Anonymous at June 1, 2007 9:24 PM

Bob, I take umbrage at that remark. Like I'm a YUPPIE or something wanting to put STRIP MALLS in Bed Sty....

Posted by: Long Island dockers wearing white guy at June 1, 2007 9:59 PM

Bob, I take umbrage at that remark. Like I'm a YUPPIE or something wanting to put STRIP MALLS in Bed Sty....

Posted by: Long Island dockers wearing white guy at June 1, 2007 9:59 PM

CHUTZPAH, not chitzpah! LOL

Posted by: Anonymous at June 1, 2007 11:13 PM

I guess Virgin really pulled out the big guns for this PR disaster. Jayne Wallace did the publicity for such huge TV events as:
Buried Alive II, My Stepson My Lover, and Breaking the Surface: The Greg Louganis Story...(I'm not making these up) Please puruse her credits at the following link:

http://tv.yahoo.com/contributor/1067409/credits;_ylt=AmMRCp6j1G7fqRf0544XrbG.o9EF

Posted by: why should we tell bed stuy it rules again? at June 1, 2007 11:13 PM

You're pathetic Virgin Mobile.

All of your "You Rule" ads are stupid.

Whenever I come across one the person stops, reads, and says "you suck virgin!!"

you're not selling any phones. someone should get fired over this debacle

Posted by: Anonymous at June 1, 2007 11:34 PM

My apologies to the Dockers men of Hicksville! I agree--telling a NYC 'hood that it "rules" is an even more fundamental problem with this campaign than the fine points we were dissecting. Also, point of clarification--I'm discussing Virgin Atlantic Airlines as if it was synonymous with Virgin Mobile, which it, of course, isn't. The airline's marketing is the marketing I like. So I can imagine that marketing to people who fly to London regularly whilst enjoying massages and single malts is probably a different job than selling cell phones that don't require contracts. Sorry--quit business school after half a semester...

Posted by: bob999 at June 1, 2007 11:42 PM

Wow. You people are such alarmist tools. Oooh, I don't even live in Bed-Stuy but I need to comment on how Bed-stuy really is. Meanwhile, you're sitting with your ibook at Starbucks or the Tea Lounge looking for a way to get offended by outsiders talking about thug life in a positive way. Get real jobs you post-hipster dog-walking, advertise majoring, Ivey-league wannabe poor people.

Posted by: Anonymous at June 2, 2007 12:59 AM

Alarmist tool!!! You're hired 12:59! You can work for Virgin Mobile for free!! You have been chosen to lead the new campaign to give thug life the positive spin it deserves.

Posted by: anon at June 2, 2007 1:29 AM

Booyeah! Thug life!

Posted by: Anonymous at June 2, 2007 1:50 AM

TAKE THAT- Charlie Murphy!!!

Posted by: Anonymous at June 2, 2007 6:30 AM

Virgin should realize they are idiots and make the morons who wrote the ad publish their original idiotic pitch materials. That might explain the extent of the problems over there. Is it just one group of dumb ad geeks or is it a whole company full of jerks who are happy to insult a community?

Posted by: Anonymous at June 3, 2007 8:34 PM

Um, 12:59, are you actually arguing that anybody would be "offended by talking about thug life in a positive way"? Dude, you are the tool. Also, it really isn't all that "alarmist" to have a conversation about the quality of a bit of advertising. Dorky, but not alarmist. Because you're totally right about advertising majors. Who are also tools.

Posted by: anon at June 3, 2007 8:38 PM

11:13,

I know it's a "u" and not an "i" in chutzpah, but once you make a typo and hit"Post" you can't fix it (and my typing is terrible). Sorry!

Posted by: Bob Marvin at June 3, 2007 9:39 PM

I hope this is not the same Jayne Wallace who used to be an on-air reporter at CBS News' West 57th program. That would be so sad. She was a reporter with integrity. Is this what she's become? That show launched Steve Kroft, Meredith Viera and many other great journalists. Please be a different person. And if you are the one and the same please explain why you are doing this? You can make money without giving up your soul I'm sure.

Posted by: Anonymous at June 4, 2007 12:05 AM

I'd love to see the original pitch materials of the creatives responsible for this calamity. Come to think of it, I wouldn't mind seeing some of their college essays, high school math tests, and childhood artwork too.

Kudos to Brownstoner for re-posting this on behalf of Virgin so they could see that we're only going to make fun of it some more.

Posted by: Lothar of the Clinton Hill People at June 4, 2007 7:29 AM

What's next? "Clinton Hill, you be chill"?

The problem with this campaign is that it is so transparently pandering to a community that the seller so transparently has no knowledge or respect for. It's the cluelessness and tone-deafness that screams out from this adverstisement. The best analogy I can think of is people who call me "Bob" to affect familiarity with me, but don't know me well enough to realize that I don't go by "Bob." By calling me that, they're highlighting their ignorance of who I am.

Posted by: Robert at June 4, 2007 9:33 AM

And here I was thinking the real estate scene has become...

Bed Stuy, Rent or Buy?

Posted by: webster at June 4, 2007 10:10 AM

I think it was a nice idea. You can't win with these people.

Posted by: Anonymous at June 4, 2007 10:25 AM

fakely earnest response by giant conglomerate in search of free new ad slogan. give that woman a bonus!!

Posted by: Anonymous at June 4, 2007 10:27 AM

what about: we've got good phone deals for anyone anywhere.

Posted by: pietro at June 4, 2007 11:29 AM

Not from Bed Stuy, but I think attacking a company over a ad slogan is such a waste of anyone's time. And personal attacks on their staff is certainly uncalled for, here or elsewhere.

Posted by: Rastaman at June 4, 2007 12:42 PM

Robert!!!!

That was the best analogy I've heard. I spent countless entries last week trying to exhibit the insensitivity that the add evoked.

Thank you!

Posted by: BedStuy4Life at June 4, 2007 12:57 PM

I laughed at Virgin's asking us to do their work for them and came to the comments section to tell them to pound sand. What response did they think they would get? Brooklyn, YOU RULE.

Posted by: Anonymous at June 4, 2007 1:58 PM

Y'all suckers can make fun of VM and Jayne Wallace all you want, but you gotta admit they do seem to have hit a nerve here – I mean, isn’t this the second thread on Brownstoner alone (not to mention the two or three on Curbed)? Is it unfathomable that people like Jayne (no doubt a transplant…) and her well-paid staff foresaw just how provocative these ads would be to New Yorkers? Don't you see how these ads prey on so many of our insecurities - what better way to get our attention than bombard us with the “clumsy” attempts of an "outsider" trying to classify and homogenize us with decidedly dorky little sound bites about where we live. Can't you just see Jayne and her team of amateur taxonomists writing about us on a whiteboard somewhere (reads: somewhere on Madison Avenue): "confrontational", "hubristic", "self-important", "uber-colloquial"… Isn’t it kind of ironic that whether we've lived here for six weeks or six generations, the only tie that truly binds us all together as New Yorkers is our uncanny willingness to be defined by our own smug sense of micronabe terroir? They might as well have called this campaign "Revenge of the Transplanted Mid-Westerners"...
Whether your notion of “ruling” is stealing one of their neighborhood-appropriate ads off the street and hanging it up on the eggshell-white walls of your freshly-rented railroad apartment or writing even snarkier ad copy than they have, showing those stupid-ass, FOTB Ohio-bred ad people just how much smarter and more authentic you are than them, it doesn’t really matter. Because either way, you’re still doing their bidding for them – see, You Do Rule!
And just remember, don’t think for a second that these ad guys’ actual job is selling phones and service to people with bad credit – they’ll leave that to the Haitian and Israeli guys on the front lines. Their job is to get people talking about VM’s ad campaign enough that other ad people and, more importantly, other advertisers can’t help but take note of the buzz they’ve created – that’s how they get paid…

p.s. – I’m born and bred, I don’t work in advertising and I do still live here – and yes, it’s taking every ounce of willpower I have not to tell you where…

Posted by: I am not a target market at June 6, 2007 3:51 AM

Better than write a new Bed Stuy ad, let's offer our suggestions for a Virgin ad for Durham, North Carolina.

I'll start:

DURAM, YOU RULE

You have the tenacity to overcome rape charges and go on to reach the national championship. Sure you're sexist, racist frat boys who hire strippers with mommy and daddy's money and you may fantasize in emails about violent rapes, but at least you haven't acted those fantasies yet. That's why you need Virgin Mobile's pay as you go plans. No contract and no commitments so you can save your monthly allowance for the big kegger next week and you're not tied into a contract while you're waiting to get acquitted.

Presenting a plan as awesome and innocent as you: Durham, You Rule.

Posted by: Anonymous at June 6, 2007 8:26 AM

BED-STUY, YOU RULE.

The truth is, we at Virgin are too scared to come to your neighborhood because don't want to get shot. Don't you know, we make most of our money from people who don't have good enough credit to get a real cell phone contract? That's why we're advertising to you people. We how how important it is that you can make your booty calls and score some smoke. And with our plans, you can put them on hold indefinitely while you're in the joint for armed robbery or carjacking. That's the beauty of our cell phone plans without contracts. Thanks Bed-Stuy. Please don't shoplift our phones.

Posted by: art disease at June 6, 2007 11:53 AM

oh, how easily Bed Stuy folks are offended! "you rule" is SUCH an insult! How dare anyone say "you rule" to a Bed Stuy person. Shame on those bad advertisers....(get a life, BS folks!)

Posted by: Rastaman at June 6, 2007 1:24 PM

yeah, VM should know that "you rule" is Bed Stuy code for "F-YOU", everyone knows that! There ought to be a law against anyone using that phrase in Brookly, evidently!

Posted by: nysoulman at June 6, 2007 1:27 PM

All "you rule" are belong to us

Posted by: andomb at June 6, 2007 4:03 PM

Jayne... it seems Kensington wants the challenge

http://kensingtonbrooklyn.blogspot.com/2007/06/virgin-ads-hit-kensington.html

Posted by: east 5th gal at June 7, 2007 7:31 AM

« What Events Would You Like to Hear About? Monday Links »

June 3, 2007

A Challenge from Virgin Mobile

Trackback Pings

Comments

Post a comment

Latest Restaurant Additions