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.
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.
ReplyDeletethanks for digging that up!
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:
ReplyDeletehttp://tiny.cc/YOUWILL