New Thing #79: New AT&T Commercials

AT&T1There's a new round of AT&T commercials out featuring the children-in-a-classroom focus group and the guy who reminds me of my friend Kevin. I was alerted to the fact that there were new commercials during some of the basketball conference championship games on Sunday by none other than Kevin himself.

"There is a new AT&T ad with 'me' and it's great," Kevin texted me. "He starts high-fiving the kids. It's hilarious."

The best part of all of this is that Kevin refers to the guy in the commercials as 'me', because I was reminded of Kevin and his interactions with children the very first time I saw these AT&T commercials.

It's not an insult. All of my friends who don't have children have been fantastic around my daughters.

Kevin's approach, though, is unique. He talks to the girls in a frank manner. And when I saw the first AT&T commercial with these focus groups, it immediately made me think of those interactions.

In an interesting twist, not long after Kevin told me about the new commercial, The AV Club, which I wrote about as New Thing #78, published this article about whether or not these AT&T commercials are effective. (I tend to disagree with the site. I think they get across what they're selling fine.)

It seems with the NCAA Tournament on the horizon there's a new batch of these commercials. I've already seen two - neither of which involves any high-fiving. So there must be more to see.

Like the Super Bowl, the Tournament serves up some pretty good commercials. I'm sure there will be some good new ones this weekend. They'll have some work to do to make me laugh like the AT&T commercials. Especially since I know Kevin's enjoying them so much too.