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Sprint Quickly Pulls Video Ad Calling T-Mobile 'Ghetto' (fiercewireless.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Sprint has pulled an ad in which it was calling its competitor, T-Mobile, "ghetto." The ad featured company's CEO Marcelo Claure. "I'm going to tell you a carrier name and I want you to basically tell me what comes to your mind," Claure said in the ad. "T-Mobile. When I say T-Mobile to you, just a couple of words?" Which is when a white woman chimes in, "Oh my god the first word that came to my head was ... ghetto." "That sounds, like, terrible," she says. "I don't know't know. There's always, like, three carriers; there's AT&T, Sprint and Verizon. And people who have T-Mobile are just, like... Why do you have T-Mobile?""We're sharing real comments from real customers," Claure wrote in the aftermath of criticism. "Maybe not the best choice of words by the customer. Not meant to offend anyone."
T-Mobile is by far the best carrier for the money. I don't frequently espouse that opinion because I consider them the "best kept secret" and don't want other people over-subscribing the network.
Maybe racism is just an elaborate ruse by wealthy white people to keep Jazz music to themselves?
Once you go band 12 of t-mobile, they're a 1st class carrier. Anything else though, it's just utter shit.
Throwing your customers under the bus is always a good PR move. Way to go.
"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." - Mark Twain
As the only major carrier that told the Feds to get a warrant before they would provide access to all of your private data, Hero comes to mind before ghetto.
Isn't that bad. I've been with them for a while (7 years), and prices/wifi calling and so on are pretty good.
The only issues I've had is coverage in remote areas (places that A&T/Sprint/Verizon didn't work well either) and inside buildings. Their new LTE
network is supposed to fix the inside building thing, and I've just used wifi inside.
I think some of the pay as you go (burner) phones are way more ghetto.
“I don't know't know. There's always, like, three carriers; there's AT&T, Sprint and Verizon. And people who have T-Mobile are just, like... well, you know, they’re like black and minorities and poor and stuff, and those people, like, live in, like, you know, the ghetto...”
Sprint doesn't offer enough bling to bring in the money.
"Don't do crack, it's a ghetto drug" -- Jesse Jackson
(and of course, not a single peep from anyone).
So Sprint must be for self-absorbed inarticulate people, if you use their marketing example as benchmark.
Why do you have T-Mobile?
The question is best asked, "why do you subscribe to cellular phone service?" among the providers listed most are indiscernable from one another outside their limited branding. each network has a coverage determined by the wavelength and spectrum allotted the towers by the FCC. each network has a set of plans, terms, conditions, contractual obligtations, fees and fines associated with their services. And finally, each network of cellular systems is susceptible to outages or failures due to interference, underprovisioning, and "act of god." The cellular service must therefore be defined in terms of the lifestyle it offers, not the service.
the question is why or how do these services differentiate themselves in the consumer mind at all from one another? What the CEO was doing was a simple market identity and brand association test performed every single day by hundreds of corporate focus groups from proctor and gamble to general electric. AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint collectively spend multiple billions of dollars each year to promote their product in different ways. AT&T's advertisements may focus on connectivity and family, while Verizon may focus on selling their customers on the perception of advanced or modern living through a superior network and handsets. It doesnt matter the theme, however assuming the target of the question is being genuine and not a paid actress, its a telling statement. Perhaps T-Mobile has spent too much advertising focus on low-cost plans. another common problem, one that marketing and advertisers are keenly aware of, is demographic. Too much diversity in your advertisements and many middle income white suburban consumers will subconsciously associate your product with the negative minority stereotypes utilised by other marketing teams to sell things like music, movies, and clothing. The question the CEO asked to the participant elicited a tacit admission that the participant felt either alienated or confused by the networks product as she hadn't been properly exposed to the correct advertisement for her demographic which, depending on your marketing alignment, can be a sign of trouble.
full disclosure: I work in marketing.
Good people go to bed earlier.
There's always, like, three carriers; there's AT&T, Sprint and Verizon. And people who have T-Mobile are just, like... Why do you have T-Mobile?"
'Cause "like, three carriers" can actually mean four carriers - dumb ass.
[ I use Ting which uses Sprint (and Verizon) for CDMA and T-Mobile for GSM. ]
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Boost Mobile, the MVNO that targets the urban youth demographic, runs on Sprint's network.
This should've been linked in TFA/TFS somewhere:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Geez, I for the days of NOT that long ago, when the only words you couldn't use on TV were the George Carlin Famous 7.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
I have used t-mobile for about 5 or 6 years. I have never had a problem with the service. Contrary to what that airhead customer thinks, I don't live in a ghetto.
:)
I love to see the look on the faces of my ATT friends when I tell them I only pay $50/month for unlimited text/calls/data (up to 2GB at 4g then throttled back after that). I also have rollover data, so what I don't use gets put on the next month's "allowance". They just sent me a text the other day showing I have about 6GB of 4g-speed data to use.
And recently they mentioned something about certain kinds of streaming traffic not counting towards your monthly allotment. I haven't really looked into it yet.
On a personal note, the attitude of that customer makes me sick. I have friends and family of different races. I know people who live "in the ghetto". They are not subhumans you can look down your nose at...what a bitch.
They do understand that neo-nazis, rascists, anti-semitics, bigots, etc are real actual people, not fiction.
Did they think they just existed in the movies? That liberals were just lying when they claimed we needed civil rights?
The fact that you found and interviewed a real slime bag, does not excuse you for sending their views out into the world.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
I believe that a good number of George Carlin's 7 you can now say on TV.
Time to offend someone
It's not that you can't use the word, it's just not a smart thing to call people when you want their business.
But the person on the ad was not calling anyone "Ghetto"...she said the word to describe T-Mobile, a competitor, was Ghetto.
Thinking of the broad definition of the word, things like:
the poorest part of a city...
a situation that resembles a ghetto especially in conferring inferior status or limiting opportunity....
I'd think it would be somewhat of a appropriate word. It isn't even remotely referring to the people that live there, but to the area itself.
But no...everyone has to attach a racist tag to it.
Funny....where is the uproar over the NY Mayor and Clinton's skit the other night, where the mayor said he was late because he was on CP time?
I saw a little blurb about it on the new...and I didn't even know what CP time was...apparently it is "Colored People" time.
It isn't offensive to me...but God help us if a couple of conservative type folks did the exact same thing, there'd be howls in the media for their heads.
But, I digress.
People, just get over it...pretty soon, NOTHING will be able to be said.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Sprint is now the smallest carrier in the US. T-Mobile overtook them some time ago.
I am one of T-Mobile's earlier customers. I signed up with them shortly after they formed in 1999 because they were the only carrier in Metro Detroit that offered GSM, and I thought it would be useful to be able to use my phone in Europe where I worked for a week or two once a year. Indeed, I used my phone in Europe sparingly. Thanks to number portability, I've had the same phone number for the entire 17 year period.
We've had our ups and downs, but for most of those 17 years T-Mobile was the cheapest option, sometimes by a large margin. Their data service is fast, but only if you get a 4G or 4G LTE signal. You don't want to be stuck on their Edge network for longer than brief periods. Edge is not much better than 1999-era GSM.
I haven't gotten a 3G signal in many years, except where T-Mobile has a roaming agreement with another carrier. In these roaming areas, they give you a tiny monthly allocation of data which I normally exhaust in a few hours. You can still make calls and send text messages as normal. This leads me to conclude that while other carriers have wider deployments, T-Mobile has done a great job at providing coverage where their customers actually live and work. Unfortunately, when you go camping and you have roaming coverage instead of Edge coverage, you will quickly not be able to use the Internet at all, rather than have to settle for slower speeds.
I live, work, and mostly travel where T-Mobile 4G LTE coverage is good. Programs like Waze are much better now at dealing with networks like T-Mobile where speeds can go from 4G LTE to no coverage within ten miles by behaving like you would expect. I used to have problems with apps thinking that everywhere the app is being used the bandwidth will be the same, or the developer naively assuming that their offices in Silicon Valley have similar coverage to places like rural Illinois.
To summarize, if you are a rural user, do not use T-Mobile. If you are a(n) (sub)urban and cost sensitive user like me, go with T-Mobile. You won't always get good coverage in rural areas, but you can at least store your pictures and videos and immediately crush the first 4G LTE tower you encounter once you get within range on your way home.
Their latest promotion... Amazon Prime for $10.99 a month on your bill. I'll let you do the math in your head real quick. Sprint has totally lost their minds.
Unfortunately, most Americans will find that preferable than paying for it all up front. Especially when they see that $10.99 $99. It's our public education at it's finest!
"A plan fiendishly clever in its intricacies"- Homer Simpson
That's funny. I would've said something almost exactly the opposite in terms of brand image:
"Sprint -- oh, you mean you still live with your parents?"
T-mobile has some of the better international roaming-included and no-contract cancellation policies around. And they are significantly cheaper than ATT and Verizon.
That said, I'm also one step away from moving over to Google Fi.
I guess I am not a racist, but I like T-Mobile's ads and prices.
Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
Oy, the Goyim. ;) Perhaps she should have said something less offensive, such as "T-Mobile sucks the sweat off my grandpa's balls." Then everyone would be happy (especially her grandpa).
> People, just get over it...pretty soon, NOTHING will be able to be said.
Oh, please. There is no never-expanding-list of things you can't say. It's merely an matter of respect. This article is a perfect illustration of that. The word itself isn't the issue, it's the interpretation of what the person meant. To most it is doubtful that that person pored over a dictionary trying to find the best most accurate word to use. Instead they probably thought the person had a particular picture in their head, one they found unflattering. They could have said "trailer park", not even a remotely racial term, and the same would have happened.
People don't like being judged for something they didn't do. That's it, that's the whole story. There are lots of terms that do just that, and you already know what they are, it's not some new thing that just came along. What is changing is that the scope of people you meet in your life is broadening. In my own case I gave up using the R-word very fast after doing some volunteer work for the Special Olympics. I'm in a position where I could really darken the day of someone who doesn't deserve it. Nobody has ever actually gotten on my case before for using that term, I didn't have to find out it was on a "bad list" by using the term in front of one of the athletes. All I needed to know was what the word meant. It isn't too much to ask to know what words mean.
You don't actually have to live in fear of accidentally using the wrong term, especially if you're not already an asshole.
But the person on the ad was not calling anyone "Ghetto"...she said the word to describe T-Mobile, a competitor, was Ghetto.
I'm trying to figure out how they thought it would be beneficial to them to say this in the first place.
Cellular companies are just service providers. If a cheaper service provider meets the customer's needs then why would the customer spend more money than necessary?
Insulting another company through pejoratives that don't have a technical meaning probably does more to galvanize that company's subscribers against the person making the statement than it does to solicit those subscribers, as it is basically an insult to the customers too.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
You're thinking of Boost Mobile.
Editor, A1-AAA AmeriCaptions
People, just get over it...pretty soon, NOTHING will be able to be said.
Simply not true. Things drop off the list as other things area added. And "colored" was on the list long before CP Time was said by a white person for a laugh.
Learn to love Alaska
Finally someone with some sense on Slashdot. How insecure are people posting here that they have to cry every time a story comes up that references changing social etiquette norms, especially in public circumstances? The exercise was word association. The woman associated T-mobile with "ghetto", and the implication was clearly that it was meant to be derogatory, in the sense that it's bad to be associated with a ghetto. Many people are forced to live in what have traditionally been called ghettos, this does not reflect who they are as people but the association with "ghetto" impacts their life in negative ways, from financial and social hardship to just feeling shitty. Commercials like this normalize this association in our culture and imply that the effect is neglible. This further hurts the people already affected by the association because it basically says that their negative experience with the association doesn't matter. Now, you can be an asshole all you want in private, that's fine if that's what it takes to make you feel better about yourself. But in the public domain, when your thoughts may be heard by anyone, have a little consideration about the actual effects of what your dumb ass wants to say. I swear reading all these comments on Slashdot complaining about PC culture, I feel like you all are a second away from killing yourselves because you can't handle the notion that social norms can be hurtful to others. tl;dr thank you, poster above me, for having some damn sense
The goal is to make people realize that they don't want to be "ghetto dwellers" or "settlers" or whatever, and that they can solve all their social and technological problems by simply buying the service or product being advertised. That's called "advertising."
T-Mobile had international-supported GSM before anyone else. AT&T added it soon after, when they were losing business from the multi-nationals, but only on locked phones that weren't international. With T-Mobile, there was about 5-10 years where they were the only one that you could buy an unlocked GSM phone that worked on international frequencies. Tokyo to NYC to Paris with the same phone. Just swap SIMs if you like for local rates/numbers, or keep your SIM and pay insane international roaming rates for the convenience. AT&T eventually caught up, but not without having been behind for years. I haven't followed with recent moves who's international compatible.
Learn to love Alaska
I remember about 10 years ago when Sony announced the PSP the claimed that they were going to "will elevate portable entertainment out of the handheld gaming ghetto." No one raised a stink over Sony back then. The only thing people questioned was that idea that the Gameboy Advance, at the time, was a "ghetto."
Hmm, I hadn't thought of that. I'm basically settling land and have established a self sufficient high tech farm using solar and skills of ~30 years space experience (not exactly ignorant or simple). No one around me, closest neighbor over 1km away, no services except for dsl and dirt road. To be fair, most of the people around me are rather, well stoned and former Woodstock attendees. Should I be offended?
Only people in the ghetto can use the word ghetto. Just say "the G word" instead.
"We're sharing real comments from real customers," Claure wrote in the aftermath of criticism. "Maybe not the best choice of words by the customer. Not meant to offend anyone."
It doesn't matter if it wasn't the best choice of words by the customer. Somebody at Sprint or their ad agency thought it was okay to run it. The real story isn't that some customer said that, but that Sprint thought it was acceptable to air it.
But no...everyone has to attach a racist tag to it.
Well, that is sort of the origin of the word: a segregated neighborhood of the city. Usually jews, but more recently for black neighborhoods in the US. They don't even have to be all impoverished but generally are as groups that have economic power usually aren't force to live someplace. To somebody that's never been told where they have to live, it might have a more generally meaning, but as that red-lining is still going on, it might have different meaning to those who actually have to live there.
I'm getting 90 megabits LTE service at the moment from my "ghetto" T-Mobile unlimited data service which costs me $30 less per month than I was paying AT&T on my original grandfathered data plan.
So, how can Verizon win me as a customer? By insulting all of T-Mobile's customers? Yeah, not happening.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
There is no never-expanding-list of things you can't say.
There's no list of words I can't say, but there sure as hell is a list of words that will get knee-jerking SJW's bitching at you, and it expands all the time.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Abraham Lincoln: [interrupting] What a charming negress. Oh, forgive me, my dear. I know that in my time some use that term as a description of property.
Uhura: But why should I object to that term, sir? You see, in our century, we've learned not to fear words.
. .
If there is anything the latest series of the x-files has taught me, it is that words can have weight.
http://geekdad.com/2016/02/the...
If there is another thing I have learned from news and social commentary - it is that the western world is getting heavier. perhaps this is what is happening to our words also :)
. .
The broad definition of the word isn't "the poorest part of a city" - it actually means the area of a city that is set aside for a minority, and carries some connotations of that place being poor. People aren't just attaching a racist tag to it; the very definition of the word is inseparable from race. The fact that you think "ghetto" simply means a "poor area" suggests that you've been exposed to a lot of casual racism in your life, and you haven't noticed.
For example, during the Nazi era, the Jews were gathered into ghettoes. They weren't called ghettoes because they were poor, they were called that because they were areas that were set aside for Jews.
When I was in high school, a lot of kids would say "that's gay" to refer to anything they didn't like in general - imagine if the woman in the ad had called T-Mobile "gay"! It's similarly offensive to people who actually live in ghettoes, or are part of races that have historically been forced into ghettoes.
Well, maybe not Tokyo. They're CDMA. (though they use GSM/WCDMA for 3g if you got a 2100MHz 3G phone, there's no GSM to fall back to, only CDMA). Also it was only in the last couple of years you were able to buy/use an unlocked phone there. It sucked. While their tech is great, they're somehow more behind on the mobile sphere than we are. (except in payments, where they kick our ass)
Ever heard the saying "fish don't know they're wet"?
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Speaking as somebody who frequently travels (both on business trips and pleasure ones) T-Mobile's free international roaming is a huge deal for me. Until another carrier offers that, or offers sufficiently-cheaper service to make up for the difference of adding that, I will most likely stick to TMo. Being able to get off the plane anywhere in the world and immediately have my phone work is just magical, as is being able to text my girlfriend without even needing to buy a new SIM and tell her the new number.
The unlimited music streaming is also very nice. I stream about 6GB of music per month over cellular data, and it doesn't count against my high-speed data / tethering limit.
There's no place I could be, since I've found Serenity...
You're thinking of Boost Mobile.
My first thought.
Boost Mobile: "Whea you at?"
Hey, it's a market, can't fault them for going after it.
"Sort of"? Segregating a religious group has hardly anything to do with racism. Jews were not prohibited from converting to Christianity. In fact, at times, they were very much encouraged to do so, especially in Spain. Being a Jew wasn't an immutable trait of theirs.
Ezekiel 23:20
The advertisement is a little ironic considering that T-Mobile has more subscribers than AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint. Not only is the advertisement unprofessional, but the connotation that T-Mobile is ghetto is completely incorrect.
Let's make like a bird... and get the flock outta here.
That makes no sense. If a 40 year old or a 3 year old called me "doo doo head", obviously I wouldn't be insulted since those words have no meaning behind them other than "things 3 year olds say".
If a 40 year old or a 3 year old called me a "goddamn piece of shit" then, well in the first case, yeah, I'd be insulted, and the second, I'd question what the fuck the kid's parents have been teaching.
Words matter. But that's not even the point. My point is quoting a writer from the 60's really says nothing. I'm sure the JJ Abrams version of Uhura would have put the beat down on Lincoln. Which also doesn't matter, since it's still a random white guy writing a piece of FICTION.