6Dec/06Off
AT&T – You Will, They Didn’t
Remember the old AT&T “You Will” commercials from a little over ten years ago? Andrew Sullivan points out that AT&T predicted the future with surprising accuracy. (except for AT&T’s actual role in bringing us the future)
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December 6th, 2006 - 10:42
It is really weird to think about how different my world was 10 years ago. I would have never thought of GPS or even the possibility of working for/in/with the internets. I was a late adapter of the internet and now my whole life has something to do with it. And to see things in a commercial from ten years ago, that we consider normal nowadays is almost creepy.
December 6th, 2006 - 10:53
I remember seeing that commercial and thinking, “Send a FAX? from the BEACH? Oh, you crazy, crazy marketing people. That’s just nuts.”
December 6th, 2006 - 10:55
Actually, ten years ago (1996), I very much had my finger on the pulse of all this. By that time, I was pushing the limits of what I could find out about anything on the Web, using email religiously, and getting paid (barely) to design web pages.
But in 1993, I was still extremely clueless, despite a computer programming background going back to the early 80s. I was in college for Creative Writing at the time, didn’t own a computer, knew nothing about the World Wide Web, and found the process of going to “The Pod” on campus to access email too tedious to even bother. So for me, it’s amazing what a difference just a few years can make.
In the ten years since then, web design is my livelihood, I met my wife online, and I got my current job on Monster.com. So I owe technology quite a bit. AT&T was right — I WILL! :)
I still want my flying car, though.
December 6th, 2006 - 11:00
I want my flying car, too.
December 6th, 2006 - 11:30
what’s a phone booth?!!!
December 6th, 2006 - 14:06
I think that was Jenna Elfman in that phone booth.
The first time I saw the internet so many years ago, a friend was trying to dowload a picture entitled, “Gena Lee Nolin Shows No Tan Lines!” I believe it took him about an hour and a half. I had to leave before it got past her forehead.
December 6th, 2006 - 15:15
Groovy. I’ve been dreaming about most of these technologies since me and my friend Chris used his old Apple to hack into our local phone company back in the early 80s. (Um, the statute of limitations has run on that, right?) I wonder which nify thing we get next.
December 6th, 2006 - 17:22
I’m old enough to remember the invention of ATMs, and now I’m going to kill myself.
December 6th, 2006 - 17:27
You and me both, brother.
December 6th, 2006 - 20:45
You know what’s truly pathetic about seeing these? My husband worked on the team that invented most of this shit way back then, but AT&T was so fucking slow and incompetent when it came to bringing products to market, that they lost out to everyone else. Departments wouldn’t work with other departments to launch what the team came up with. Smart cards, what became EZ pass…could have been available nearly a decade sooner, but noooooooooooo.
Sorry, but this one’s a personal peeve of ours. It was incredibly frustrating for the Czar to work on so many inventions, only to see them languish until other companies launched them first. Stupid phone monolith.
December 6th, 2006 - 20:51
I worked there, too, and you are so not kidding with the inter-departmental bullshit.
December 7th, 2006 - 09:59
I remember in college on really nice days wishing for a really long electrical cord so that I could write my paper outside. (sigh)
December 8th, 2006 - 13:43
That IS Jenna Elfman in the phone booth and Jesse L. Martin (Law & Order) is the doctor in one of the other spots.