Does anybody else feel like the AT&T commercials have just gotten radically scripted? These are the commercials with the man sitting at a table or on a circle rug with a group of children asking them questions like “Which is better? Fast or slow?”
I have no idea what they have been doing all along, but I always felt like part of them charm in these commercials is that it really does sound like he has asked them and they have just answered like little kids were. The latest 2 or 3 don’t have that at all. It sounds like kids doing their school play that they have practiced a hundred times and some grown-up has written the almost-but-not-quite-kid lines.
This bothers me so much because they were such cute commercials! The kid who can wave his hand and his head at the same time gets a LOL every time!
According to a few articles found online, there is a script but it’s more of a “guided improv”
Some of them seem scripted, but according to the links, they’re not. They try to get the kids bouncing around with their own stuff. A couple of them seemed scripted but I can’t think of the examples offhand.
This one kills me. Not the girl talking; the other girl. When she hears the girl talking about her puppy-brother, her eyes get a little wider and her mouth is hanging open in awe, and I can just hear her thoughts, “Wow! What a great idea! Why didn’t I think of that??!”
I like that one too, but the girl who tries to talk looks so crushed for a split second and then she looks over at the boy and she starts smiling at his antics as well.
My wife and I have been arguing about whether these are scripted are not. As others have mentioned, some seem scripted and some seem more natural. Although if not scripted, I suspect they must film quite a bit of footage in order to get 30 seconds of cute for the ads.
Yeah, she starts to say, “Look, I can do it too!” My favorite is the girl’s voice in this one: Adult: So, do you guys think that being fast is better than being slow?
Girl: It’s better to be fast to not be bitten by a werewolf and then you’ll be turned into one and you’ll have to stay in and then you’ll have to get shaved because you’ll be too hot and then you’re like rawr, rawr, rawr, rawr, rawr which means I wish I was back to a human.
It’s not complicated: Cute kids are cute.
Absolutely- he plays the straight man really well. His incredulous questions are hilarious.
Just last night, I was thinking how much I love these commercials. . . and I don’t even particularly like kids. They’re just hysterical. My favorite one is the one where the kid talks about taping a cheetah to his grandma’s back.
I’ve got to think these arose from the success the Ally Bank commercials enjoyed… remember giving the kid a pony? As mentioned there’s probably a general theme they’re embracing but they’ve brought in bright, gregarious kids and they let them go with it. Hopefully, after a number of takes they’ve got a heavily edited impromptu scene!
I’m not 100% sure I’ve seen them all, but the “Infinity times infinity” one (which is brilliant, btw) was the ones that told me they were scripted or just jumped the shark.
The one that’s lately cracked me up is the one where the little girl says ‘I would be a good doctor, b/c I would give everyone ‘castesis’…’
Adult: ‘You would give everyone castesis?’
Other little girl: “yeah with like stickers that say ‘get better soon’!”
First girl <cracking up> “Nooo!”
And the way the adult rolls his eyes a bit when he says ‘yeah’. It’s not rude to the second girl but it’s hilarious. He really trods a fine line. (I don’t want the kids insulted or made to feel bad. I wouldn’t enjoy it. He always seems to be really listening to them.)
Also the “I can do this…and I can do this” kid is beyond awesome as is rawr rawr rawr girl.