Things just aren’t going well for Sprint mobile these days; not that that’s unusual. Arrington recently ripped them apart, and why not, the service is horrible (love Michael’s title, “Sprint Sucks and Their New Website is Stupid.” Still, I was surprised today when flipping through the Wall Street Journal to encounter a full page Sprint Ad titled “The First $10.5M Cell Phone.” Apparently, when you buy the 8830 crackberry, you also get a private island. Unfortunately the contest is only open to the world’s 100 wealthiest people, which means that Riley Bechtel, Stephen D. Bechtel Jr and Ronald S. Lauder (all currently tied for 101st wealthiest) will have to battle it out. Sucks to be them.
This is quite possibly the dumbest campaign I have seen in a long time. Sprint also has a website dedicated to the island ploy: PrivateIslandOffer.com, but it’s not even worth the click-thru effort.
August 29th, 2007 at 10:59 pm
Is it weird if you are the first person to comment on your own post? Grammatically, is Sprint (any business entity) referred to as “its” or “their”?
August 30th, 2007 at 9:49 am
Sam, you’re right that this is an incredibly stupid campaign. What in the world do they hope to accomplish with this?
1) The 100 Richest people don’t need to enter a contest to win an island–if they want one, they can just buy one!
2) It’s not about exclusivity, because the top 100 don’t need to show off their riches–everyone already knows!
3) Sprint is not a luxury brand! They’re not rare, or unique, or even really nice to their customers. Maybe they plan to have a special help line for the owner of this phone?
4) Plus, Sprint is only an American company! Why open the contest only to the world’s wealthiest people when a lot of them won’t even be able to use the service!
I just don’t understand it. This is a reallz misguided marketing stunt that won’t get them a lot of positive attention.
August 30th, 2007 at 12:34 pm
Hey Katie! Hah! I totally agree - plus to foot the bill for this campaign (full-page ads, professionally made videos) wasn’t cheap…why not just do some clever viral marketing?
I dunno - doesn’t make much sense.
September 3rd, 2007 at 2:25 pm
P.S. I always refer to company’s as “they”, if that helps.
September 3rd, 2007 at 2:27 pm
Great. I try to give a grammar tip, and write “company’s” instead of “companies”! Whoops.