Save Us From Our Phones

The New York Times, web edition, front page, 11/16/10

I recently found (apologies if/when they've changed their ad content) an ad for for the new Windows Phone. It says "It's time for a phone to save us from our phones." The video that precedes the text involves a phone-obsessed woman blocking foot traffic at the base of an escalator, leading the other pedestrians to glare at her, and spill out of the ad box onto the page (see screenshot below). It's a clever little bit, despite my long-held reservations about ads that interrupt the content of web sites.

The key line of the ad -- needing a phone to save us from our phones -- is throwaway copy. Neither the voiceover (cued by clicking on the ad) nor the product page reference being save from phones.

Which is to be expected. The situation shown could be caused (but not solved, at least in any way the ad describes) by the Windows Phone. It in no way distinguishes the Windows Phone from any of its competitors (the phones it is ostensibly saving us from). 

Nonetheless, the video portion of the ad sets up an interesting little drama: how will the pedestrians respond to the woman's abuse of her phone? How will they use a phone (the Windows Phone, perhaps?) to save themselves (or even her) from her phone? In the end, they just push past her.

The New York Times, web edition, front page, 11/16/10

It is bad advertising, but it is good social commentary: people feel the need to be saved from their own and others' phone use habits, so much so that a line like "It's time for a phone to save us from our phones" can be tossed out as an immediately-understood complaint that has very little to do with the product/concept being marketed.

So, dear readers, since the marketers have failed to answer their question, I leave it to you to find a better lead-in:

"It's time for __________ to save us from our phones."