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Megan Lyden, Caige McCabe, Caroline Thompson
Dr. Butler
ENG 124
18 October 2012
Calling the Facts on Manipulation
It is human nature to be greedy and unfortunately, corporate businesses multiply that
greed and will do anything to satisfy it. This greed gives these companies cause to manipulate
customers to make the most profit. The biggest examples of manipulation can be found on the
television. Almost every part of a television commercial is made specifically to manipulate
someone to buy the product they are selling. From eye popping colors to actual cold, hard facts,
some commercials will pull out all the stops to get a customer. The average television viewer can
see an example of this in the commercials for the top phone companies in the United States
today. AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile are now competing for not only paying customers and better
devices, but also for better manipulation techniques. Each company has a technique different
from the others, in hope that this original idea will win over the viewer’s hearts. T-Mobile
focuses heavily on the family plan they offer, while AT&T leans on having the faster data
network. Finally, Sprint tries to compete by putting emphasis on their unlimited data plan. But
which of these manipulation techniques works the best to make a profit in today’s tough
economy?
AT&T bases their advertising campaign on the words “Faster 4G Network” and claims
several times that everything about their company is faster than the rest. Data speeds,
downloads, 4G and finally they say they are getting faster than themselves and their competitors.
In a recent commercial, AT&T sets the scene in the average company office building, the dull
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grey walls, cubicles set up across the giant room like a grid and of course the grumpy office
workers (AT&T). Because of placing the commercial in a workplace it allows people to relate to
what is going on, they see what is happening and think: “What if that was me?” This draws the
audience to the commercial and manipulates them to pay attention and consider what AT&T is
trying to sell. The commercial continues on to a group of people around one office, all having
fun and eating tacos at the lunch break “Taco Party.”(AT&T). From here the commercial plays
on the secret fear everyone has held within them from high school, being left out. As everyone is
having fun, eating tacos, another man who works in the office approaches them demanding for
an explanation for why he wasn’t invited. He even goes so far as to ask why they invited a
coworker named Dave, when he claims none of them even like Dave! As everyone looks to the
man in silence his phone begins to ring and he sees that he was invited, his phone was just too
slow to get the message on time (AT&T). Of course when watching the commercial most people
are going to chuckle at how the situation went down, but in the back of their mind they wonder.
They want the best phone, the fastest phone; they don’t want to be left behind while the world
moves ahead. AT&T plays on these subtle feelings and manipulates people to believe that to
keep up in this world they need the fastest phone and AT&T claims to have that phone.
T-Mobile, along with many other phone companies, advertise so many commercials that
they start to get boring. It is the company’s job to make sure that the viewers are actually buying
their product, in order to do this they must manipulate the people. T-Mobile manipulates viewers
by focusing on the family aspect of cell phones. On average, there are about three people in
every household (“USA”). When a parent of a household buys a phone, there is a very high
chance that they will buy one for most of their family members. That is where T-Mobile comes
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in. T-Mobile focuses most of their commercials around Family Plans and the great deals they
have for their family plans.
One of T-Mobile’s recent commercials began by showing a family lugging backpacks,
pushing carts, and carrying stacks of random, miscellaneous, everyday items. As the family
walks extremely sluggish, slowed down by their hulking packs, the trusty T-Mobile woman
approaches them wearing her signature pink and white suit. The T-Mobile woman explains to the
family how the T-Mobile family plan is more affordable and how it suits both the adults in the
family and the children. The family stressed how their phone company wouldn’t allow them to
have all of the stuff they were carrying on their phones. After a back-and-forth argument, the TMobile woman showed the family that all of the stuff they carry can be placed on their phone.
The family was astonished and thrilled. (Don’t Carry Stacks).
By over exaggerating and carrying around piles of information, it manipulates the
viewers to feel like the scenario that happened will happen to them as well, if they don’t change
their phone company. That commercial only goes to show a few of the manipulating techniques
that T-Mobile uses to promote their family plan.
Sprint is known nationwide for having fast speed and the best unlimited plan. In a
particular Sprint commercial four different opponents are racing and they’re four different phone
companies, Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile. The racers rapidly soar across the starting
line, and each phone company has a different color that represents them. Verizon is blue; AT&T
is red; Sprint is yellow and T-Mobile is purple. This commercial is comparing the four distinct
plans that each company is presenting and to see who has the best unlimited plan. . Verizon and
AT&T violently stop in the race as Sprint and T-Mobile continue on. It states that Verizon and
AT&T have unlimited text and talk but they charge extra for going over 2GB of data. Since
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Verizon and AT&T were stopped halfway through the race, it is manipulating us to not even
consider either one of the companies because they couldn’t even make it to the finish line. TMobile and Sprint are still in the race however, the purple line, T-Mobile is traveling
intermittently and is slowing down. The commercial expresses that T-Mobile claims they’re
unlimited and that if someone were to use their phone a lot, the data speed slows down. This is
manipulating us to not go with T-Mobile because it is going too slow to catch up with Sprint, and
a lot of people want a plan that will maintain a fast consistent speed. Sprint, the yellow line, is
still in the competition for the best unlimited plan. Sprint doesn’t get charged extra or slow
down. Sprint has unlimited text, data and calling for only $79.99 a month. The Sprint line is still
elevating by itself and it shows that Sprint is the winner with the best unlimited plan. This
commercial shows that Sprint is the best plan that doesn’t cost extra for additional data and
doesn’t slow down. People want a phone plan that they can depend on and Sprint is showing that
their unlimited plan is incomparable to Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile. When people see all of
the contrasts in the commercial between the four companies, they will see that Sprint has the
principal plan and be manipulated to go and buy a phone plan from Sprint. (Sprint charts)
After analyzing these different types of manipulation that these phone companies
use people have to wonder, which one works the best? Each with unique attributes that focus on
manipulating people differently, we believe that Sprint puts forth the best technique compared to
AT&T and T-Mobile. While AT&T and T-Mobile focus on specific plans or speeds they offer,
Sprint shows the viewer’s real facts and comparisons versus other companies. While AT&T and
T-Mobile do not lie to the viewers, they appear to be leaving out the truth when Sprint literally
throws it out there. Ultimately, the more stone-cold facts that the company offers will convince
the customers better than throwing out fancy situations in an effort to play on people’s emotions.
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Works Cited
AT&T Cell Phones, U-verse, Digital TV, DSL Internet, And Phone Service . 2012 AT&T
Intellectual Property. n.d. Web. 10 Oct. 2012.
Don't Carry Stacks - T-Mobile. 28 Mar. 2012. YouTube. Web. 14 Oct. 2012.
Schrank, Jeffery . "The Language of Advertising Claims." HANDOUT:. N.p. n.d. Web. 8 Oct.
2012.
Sprint-charts commercial. 22 July 2011. YouTube. Web. 18 Oct. 2012.
"USA." QuickFacts. United States Census Bureau. 2011. Web. 16 Oct. 2012.