Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Corporate Evil, Crap Campaigns In History, Fake Attitude, Insight
So Singtel – the Singaporean telco giant – have made an ad about long distance love.
I’m sure it’s meant to highlight how their technology can make even the greatest distances feel invisible … but for me, the story is actually about a guy who fucks his girlfriend from going after her dream job in New York by guilt-tripping her into going back to Singapore because he wants to watch the football on TV. Or something.
Now I know some people in Asia have some very screwed-up attitudes towards gender equality, but this is taking the piss.
Now I appreciate I might be going a bit over-the-top on all this, but for me, the endline shouldn’t be …
“For every moment between goodbye and hello”
… it should be …
Singtel: for men who pretend to be sensitive but are bastards.
Anyway, have a look and tell me what you think. I am sure Cindy Gallop will agree with me.
20 Comments
is this the story of you and that headcase who made you move to fucking oz? id fucking sue if i were you campbell.
Comment by andy@cynic July 20, 2016 @ 6:59 amwhat was her fucking name, its driving me nuts. but not as much as she drove you to fucking madland.
Comment by andy@cynic July 20, 2016 @ 7:00 amLucky?
Comment by John July 20, 2016 @ 7:07 amGenius?
Comment by DH July 20, 2016 @ 7:11 amHer name was Danielle and – you’ll be interested to know – after 10 years of silence, she reached out to apologise for being a fuckwit. How about that eh! That said, I can never be truly pissed at her, if it wasn’t for her I’d of not moved to Australia, not have met Jill and not have had Otis.
Every cloud has a … blah blah blah.
Comment by Rob July 20, 2016 @ 9:46 amnice use of cindy “all men are fucking bastards” gallop there campbell. almost made me laugh.
Comment by andy@cynic July 20, 2016 @ 7:03 amhttp://tinyurl.com/jc3qcml
Comment by DH July 20, 2016 @ 7:10 amOh dear.
Mind you, as much as I think Cindy’s cause is very important, I’m not sure the way she is going about it is as good as it could be. Not in terms of the message she is shouting, more in terms of it all starting to feel more focused on publicising herself than her cause. Or maybe that’s just me.
Comment by Rob July 20, 2016 @ 9:48 ampot fucking kettle black.
Comment by andy@cynic July 21, 2016 @ 12:10 amI know this doesn’t disprove your thesis but it’s got almost exclusively positive comments on YouTube.
Comment by John July 20, 2016 @ 7:09 amSingaporeans always does what their government tells them to do.
Comment by DH July 20, 2016 @ 7:16 amSingtel is the governments telco, so your comment may not be that far from the truth.
Comment by Pete July 20, 2016 @ 7:24 amAll I will say is that when I once made an [obviously] joking film about the Singaporean Government taking advantage of it’s citizens, I was bombarded by abuse from people who were outraged I would ever dare say anything negative about the country. Even if I was just taking the piss.
So positive comments about the state telecommunication company isn’t that surprising.
Comment by Rob July 20, 2016 @ 10:08 amDo you want to know how long you have been away on holiday Rob? So long that I forget to remember this website until late in the evening. Thank you, you’ve made my happiness last much longer each day.
Comment by DH July 20, 2016 @ 7:14 amWatching this took me right back to the sort of work I saw when I lived in Singapore back in the early 2000s. Government brainwashing wrapped in an ad.
Comment by Pete July 20, 2016 @ 7:26 amless brainwashing and more fucking braindraining.
Comment by andy@cynic July 20, 2016 @ 7:34 amBrainmushing?
Comment by DH July 20, 2016 @ 7:44 amShe’ll kick herself when she knows she could have had me and stayed in merica.
Comment by Billy Whizz July 20, 2016 @ 8:15 amPatriotism required that she return home, of course. Otherwise the message would be “Singtel will help keep you together until you can escape this lame country for a better future”. Client probably wouldn’t have gone for that. A more interesting question is how we would feel if the genders were reversed. Would she be seen as an asshole for wanting him to come home? Most likely yes, because women are almost always damned if they do, damned if they don’t. Would he be heroic for giving up his dream job, or would you also see him as succumbing to a guilt trip and giving up too much?
Comment by Dust From Stars July 20, 2016 @ 9:31 amThey managed to squeeze a lot of bad into 3 minutes. BUT – we never got to hear Gary’s side of the story. I bet John set him up from Singapore – made it look like Gary cheated so he could swoop in and look like the knight in shining armor (which he clearly isn’t when he guilt trips her into giving up on her dream job).
Singtel: From friend zone to homewrecker at the speed of LTE.
Comment by Bryan July 21, 2016 @ 2:43 am