AT&T - "You Will" (1993)

In 1993 David Fincher helped to create one of the most memorable AT&T commercials ever: A whimsical look into the then near future -- all this "internet", "wireless" and the likes.

The commercials are narrated by Hollywood actor Tom Selleck, each starting with the phrase "Have you ever [done something completely unthinkable at the time] ..." and finishes with: "you will. And the company that will bring it to you: AT&T."

It's kind of fun to see in retro-spect that many of the inventions featured in the spots have already become a reality. After all 1993 is quite some years away, and these ads have been released even before Fincher shot his breakthrough feature film SE7EN.

The only copies of the commercials I was able to find are some severely low-quality youtube vids. Three of them are the original ads, one is a montage of four different commercials edited into one.

An interesting comment I stumbled upon while researching for this post was an article by Cory Doctorow at Boing Boing, claiming that the AT&T compaign totally overlooked the real potential and attraction of the internet: Its potential for deviance. Instead of the original texts of the ads, Cory suggests these:

"Have you ever ripped an 18th-century book and sent it to a Gutenberg pal in another country to be OCRed?" -- "Have you ever used a global mapping service to track down mercenary armies in distant lands" -- "Have you ever discovered that your secret kink has an actual name, a newsgroup, an IRC channel and a monthly convention?"


Come to think about it: These would make some really interesting FIGHT CLUB style commercials -- and David would still be just the right guy to pull these off!

You can read Cory's full article here.
Now head over to youtube and watch David's spots:

AT&T - You Will "Library"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWm8yJSrmQA

AT&T - You Will "Market"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVplomwqPic

AT&T - You Will "Toll"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cOvXn40EZw

AT&T - You Will Montage
(featuring 2 new ads, starting at 01:00)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZb0avfQme8

Disclaimer: The videos may have been posted by a user with no official right to do so.

2 comments:

  1. the most amazing thing is, that even though it's not a fincher's-"fincher's" style, his cinematic skills and his ability with visual narrative are already there.

    thanks for digging that up!

    ReplyDelete
  2. If there are any fans of the YOU WILL campaign music, I’ve posted a case study detailing the development of the track. You can find it on the Critical Noise blog by clicking here:

    http://tiny.cc/YOUWILL

    ReplyDelete