Mobile carrier promotes 'magic'...Zzzzzzzzzzzzz

Ad Nut pities mobile carriers. They've got to try to add some excitement to a well-understood, relatively undifferentiated service that consumers treat more or less like a commodity. Good coverage and speed are table stakes, and among those that are in the game, consumers care mainly about the lowest price.

But even given all that, this new campaign from Telstra (promoting Apple hardware) by The Monkeys is just dull as paint. Unless you're a fan of recording artist Thelma Plum, who seems talented but rather lost in this lifeless sequence that someone apparently thought would be compelling.

Oh, my phone can play music and send images to far-flung relatives and friends? Tell me more!

Ad Nut was hoping the scene pictured below signified some kind of plot twist into a Carrie-on-prom-night situation, but no such luck.  

Also, please stop with the group dancing in a fuzzily-lit train station thing. It was pretty magical in The Fisher King (1991), but has been a cliché ever since.

CREDITS

Client: Telstra
Executive Director of Marketing: Jeremy Nicholas
General Manager of Mobility Marketing: Dean Sofianopoulos
Senior Marketing Specialist: Sarah Leavitt
Creative Agency: The Monkeys
Cofounder & Creative Director: Justin Drape
Creative Team: Hugh Gurney, Chelsea Parks & Wassim Kanaan
Head of Production: Thea Carone
Senior Producer: Jade Rodriguez
Strategy Director: Kit Lansdell
Business Director: Kat Kelly
Content Director: Katie Bassett
 
Production Company: Goodoil Films
Director: Joel Kefali
EP: Sam Long
Producer: Andrew McLean
DOP: Crighton Bone
 
Edit House: The Editors
Editor: Bernard Garry
Post VFX: Fin Design
VFX Supervisor: Justin Bromley
Grade: Ben Eagleton @ BE Colour
Sound House: Song Zu
Engineer: Simon Kane
Track: Thelma Plum cover of FF "Clair de Lune"
Photography Production Company: Red Door
Photographer: Paul Blackmore
Producer: Natalie Loveridge
Agency Producer: Tanith Williamson
Retouching: Cream Electric Art

Ad Nut is a surprisingly literate woodland creature that for unknown reasons has an unhealthy obsession with advertising. Ad Nut gathers ads from all over Asia and the world for your viewing pleasure, because Ad Nut loves you. You can also see Ad Nut's video debut, check out Ad Nut's Advertising Hall of Fame, or read about Ad Nut's strange obsession with 'murderous beasts'.