It seems that U.S. Cellular is conducting a misguided no annoying marketing campaign on the streets of Chicago. Actors (there’s no other word for it) are posing as regular people, blabbing away on their cell phones in public, loudly, with occasional product pitches thrown into their one-sided (fake) conversations. You know you’ve been subjected to the “ad” because the phone jabberer has a blue face. Literally.
Anyone who’s had to suffer the loud intrusion of an annoying cell phone conversation on the el, knows how stupid this idea is. Take an irritating behavior and exploit it to pitch your product. Way to go pissing off the public.
You can read one person’s first-hand account of the pitch here. Comments abound and the debate is raging as to whether or not the CTA is in on it (translation, getting paid) or if the 3-D ad-actors are breaking any laws. The Tattler has followed it up with an open letter to the CTA.
2 Things @ Once 