BBDO's AT&T ads may be better than most

I think BBDO may be onto something with this new AT&T campaign shot by Wes Anderson. The first thing that makes it so noticeable is the way the five commercials in the series were shot—each as one continuous sequence as sets move in and out to depict the different places each commercial's protagonist does business. The second thing that separates this campaign from the rest of this very tired category is how it gets across what is now a pretty boring idea—that people want to have their cell phone work in all of the different places they do business. In the spot above, an actor who moves between Hollywood, Broadway, Arizona, London and South America describes the place where he does business as "Holly-York-Izona-South-Ameri-Land." Is it a mouthful? Yes. But it's also a whimsical, memorable way to make a point. From what I could gather from the not all that clear press release last week, the next phase of the campaign will contain an e-commerce component where people can create t-shirts and coffee mugs based on where they do business, such as well HollyYorkIzonaSouthAmeriLand. Maybe that's a stretch, but I've seen worse. If you want to see all of the spots in the campaign, go here.