SMS and Product Placement Advertising

Tuesday, I had two "new" ways that I received an ad.  A SMS test message ad and a very subtle product placement ad.

Around 5pm on Tuesday I received a SMS from mailbox "60062005".  The message read:

Cingular Free Msg:  Only 8 Idol finalist remain!  They sing tonight at 8pm/7C on FOX.  Text your votes & decide who stays or goes!  To end Idol msgs reply stop.

The exact same SMS came to my phone at 655pm as well.  Very good job of trying to set an appointment with me to watch the show.  No need though...we pick it up on TiVo, because Tara and Taylor love to watch it together after Taylor finishes her homework!

Speaking of TiVo, Tara and I love watching 24.  It's probably our favorite show we watch.  During a scene where Jack Bauer is on his cell phone, trying to help an innocent couple from terrorists, he gives out his cell phone number to them.

When he read out the phone number, I hit pause and looked at Tara and said 'they didn't use the normal 555 phone number' (you know how TV and movies always uses the fake 555 prefix when saying phone numbers...).

I immediately picked up my cell phone and dialed the number (go ahead and try dialing 310 597-3781):

The Nextel mailbox for 24 is full.  Thank you for calling.  Please try again later.

I guess if I had been watching the show live on a Monday and called I would of gotten a better message from Nextel, but alas, the mailbox was full.  Very cool way to promote Nextel!

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tags: american idol | 24 | nextel | sms | product placement

Comments

[James Dente]

The used the same phone number when Dina and Behrooz killed his girlfriend and her mother called when they were hiding the body... so the the voicemail's been out of action for a few weeks now. The cast and crew were passing the phone around the set for a while and answering calls from viewers. By all accounts they've stopped doing that now, though.