Ian Swenson .com

You’d have to have been living under a mountain to not have seen the AT&T ‘Alter Ego’ set of commercials lately. There are many.

I’m actually quite the fan of this commercial. It’s innovative, funny, and conveys a clear message: AT&T makes you not-dumb. Let’s watch, shall we:

I really like the “Chuck” character. The basketball-shooting version is crazy, whimisical, and stupid. He’s one of those guys you’d see at a bar that would really annoy you at first. You’d slowly realize that he’s just having a good time, so why should you fault him for that? Chuck’s alter “phone” ego is even better. He takes whimsy and turns it into a professorial discourse until his exasperated fist-pump at the end. Excellent.

But there are other AT&T commercials. The one I want to focus on today isn’t necessarily bad, it’s just a rehash of “Chuck.” But this time, “Ronnie” isn’t as likeable.

Pool Ronnie is an idiot. He’s (1) “playing pool” by himself without even trying to hit anything in, (2) singing to himself in public, and (3) air-guitaring to himself in public with a pool cue. If he was in your bar acting as such, you wouldn’t eventually grow to like him. In fact, the more he carried on, the more you’d actively hate him.

Phone Ronnie ain’t much better. He even uses the word, “dillweed.” I’m sorry, but “dillweed?” Who says that? It’s the equivalent of “doodyhead.” Phone Ronnie isn’t entertaining at all. He passive-agressively yells “thirty times!” at Pool Ronnie, and just shrugs at the end. Bleh.

Like I said, not a bad commercial, but if you’re going to reuse the same concept at least make it as entertaining as the original.

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