A Challenge from Virgin Mobile

Jayne… it seems Kensington wants the challenge

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

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!

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.

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…

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!