Another Think Coming

Move over, Saks Fifth Avenue, Bare Escentuals, et al. You're not the only ones with thinking on the brain.

This is a full-page ad from the Qatar Foundation that appeared in the April 12 issue of Time. It did make me think, but mostly about how irritated I am by random capitalization and empty platitudes.

Think isn't good enough for AT&T. Like makeup company Bare Escentuals, it orders us to Rethink.

The new slogan comes with a new Rethink Possible website. Apparently the first thing AT&T has rethought are the rules of English grammar.* (Via Brand New.)

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* I'm not an AT&T customer, but my friends who are—especially those who own iPhones that constantly drop calls—say the English translation of "Rethink Possible" is "Sorry, That's Impossible."

Comments

[Rob Frankel]

What about the proliferation of "one customer at a time" campaigns? There are WAY more of those -- and just as vapid!

[TwoBusy]

The prophet Ralph Wiggum springs to mind: "Me fail English? That's unpossible!"

[Jessica]

You know, IBM said it a lot more concisely with THINK alone back in the 1960s. If you have to explain it as exhaustively as the Qatar Foundation, maybe you should rethink that. As it were.

[Duchesse]

Yay, Jessica! One of my pals at Apple had a t-shirt with the IBM logal and "Thought"

[4ndyman]

"Rethink Possible" causes you to focus not on what AT'n'T can do, but what it might theoretically be able to do sometime in the future. It says, "Yes, it's possible, but we can't do it."

And I remember a character in a Kurt Vonnegut novel (don't remember which) who had a plaque on his desk that said THIMK. I always liked that for some reason.

[Nancy Friedman]

@4ndyman: As I noted in a comment on my original "Think" post, "THIMK" was a popular response to the IBM slogan. It even inspired a short-lived satiric magazine in the "Mad" mold. See http://bit.ly/aIYoWF and http://bit.ly/9G0L4G.