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From: dattier@chinet.chi.il.us (David Tamkin)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: AT&T Advertisement Is Stupid
Message-ID: <2856@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 11 Jan 90 00:05:33 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 25, message 6 of 10


Joel Levin wrote in Telecom Digest, volume 10, issue 16:

| Of course that's the point of the ad; what we complain about is the
| ludicrous strawman they set up, that someone might confuse calling
| Fiji with calling Phoenix.  And of course the alternate implications,
| that the ordinary user is stupid enough to make that mistake, or that
| the alternate long distance carrier would make that mistake.  This is
| only one of a number of moderately sleasy long distance ads, most of
| which are perpetrated by AT&T.

There is no alternate implication.  The caller dials to Phoenix twice
and reaches the same phone in Fiji both times.  Clearly AT&T's fantasy
has the carrier at fault.  To top it off, horror of horrors, he has to
call the carrier's customer service department for credit and look up
(or, pain of pains, REMEMBER) a telephone number longer than "00".
With AT&T, your *operator* can arrange credit.  We couldn't live
without that, could we?

Thrust of the message: if you are

(1) too stupid to follow calling card instructions;

(2) dumb enough to think that AT&T's calling cards are easier to use
    than those of other carriers;

(3) intimidated by dialing 1-800 plus seven more digits to reach
    your long-distance carrier's offices; and

(4) closed-minded and angry at the notion of any change in your life,
then American Telephone and Telegraph thinks you're important enough
to have a special commercial targeted just to getting your business.


David Tamkin  P.O.Box 813  Rosemont, Illinois 60018-0813 |      BIX: dattier
dattier@chinet.chi.il.us   (708) 518-6769 (312) 693-0591 | GEnie: D.W.TAMKIN
No two Chinet users agree about this (or anything else). |   CIS: 73720,1570