Comments on: Security company ad tricks people into thinking their houses were burgled

By: Rider

Rider — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I love they way they mentoion increased web site traffic and increasing time with the brand not sale. It’s easy to get increased web site traffic when people are pissed off at you.

By: thecheat

thecheat — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

It’s probably a rubber band.

Antinous: zing!

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Hmm. My first reaction to the copy line is, “so why didnt you break in then?”

By: cjp

cjp — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I can’t stop laughing at the voice over. All I can think of is this ‘Newsradio’ with Phil Hartman:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7ZL5tfSgA0 (3:26)

By: SamSam

SamSam — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

They’re not tricking anyone that they broke into their apartment for more than a few minutes, but that’s not the point. The condo-dwellers believe that their condos are safer because they are protected by the outer shell of the condo. This package shows that the person got through the outer shell and right up to their front doors. Most doors on the insides of condos aren’t that well protected. It will be pretty obvious to the dwellers that the person could have broken in the rest of the way.

By: sergeirichard

sergeirichard — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

It’s evil, but I like it.

By: Teller

Teller — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Love or hate, it’ll get a pencil in London.

By: Patrick Austin

Patrick Austin — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

This is mean and ADT sucks, but whoever came up with this deserves an evil genius prize. Love it!

By: bluerabbit

bluerabbit — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

What next? “Poisoning your tap water is easier than you think.”

By: freetard

freetard — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

ADT is a global security company. Perhaps this was a Chilean-specific advertising campaign?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Reminds me of joke I heard a comedian tell,
“I used to have a job selling security systems door-to-door, I was pretty good at it too, if the person wasn’t home I would just leave the brochure on the kitchen table.”

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

You know where there’s almost no chance of a break-in? A mine.

By: betatron

betatron — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Great idea — i bet it would motivate me to visit their sales office!

By: redesigned

redesigned — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

i wouldn’t have slipped one into each apartment, i would have slipped them all into one apartment, until i couldn’t fit anymore!
that is even better then the paper cup prank….

By: murray

murray — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I don’t understand how this is clever marketing. Seems utterly stupid to me. Slipping a trick box under the door proves nothing about security. Except that there’s a gap under the door.

So dumb.

By: redesigned

redesigned — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

i too must admit i thought it was a digital speech dictation program. i’ve worked with those for testing ADA compliance, and they sounds very similar.

By: Suburbancowboy

Suburbancowboy — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Sorry, but I don’t want to be “engaged with your brand”. especially not inside my home when I open the door.

By: dculberson

dculberson — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

ADT security is also a notoriously bad deal. They “give” you a “free” system or “free” installation, putting in an at most $400 system that would be really cheap to install because they use wireless sensors. Then they charge you $30 – $40/mo for monitoring that you can get as low as $8 elsewhere. Net cost is at least $200/year more than it would be from another provider, so your “free” system ends up costing you a fortune after just a few years.

By: Atrum

Atrum — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I’m torn between marveling at the ingenuity, and not liking them for freaking people out like that, even if it was only momentary.

By: efergus3

efergus3 — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Solkin syn.

By: LennStar

LennStar — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

So… what about a visit to the local police?
You have someone who admitted that he broke into your apartment, should be a fairly short investigation…

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Someone just needs to splice together footage of the ADT box and the scene from Seven where the character screams “What’s in the box?” and this ad campaign will stop.

By: Snakefarmer

Snakefarmer — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Those crazy Chileans! What will they think of next? I think it would be more effective if the thing they slip under the door was a spring loaded lifesize cutout of a guy in a ski mask instead of a box, but that’s just me.

By: Lucifer

Lucifer — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

suing ADT because the blind tenant slipped and fell by stepping on the unexpected cardboard box is easier than you think

By: bobhughes

bobhughes — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I generally hate marketing and marketers, and I miss the old days when there was already a product to go with some hip new marketing ploy – whereas today it’s normally the reverse, with a product being designed to fit the ad. Either that, or they’ve basically just given up. At first I thought this one in particular was just plain deceitful and scandalous, but of course people will open the box, see the spring and realize it’s a trick. It’s a cunning and clever way to make people think more seriously about home security. And for that, it’s one of the 0.001% of marketing campaigns that receive a higher grade than “F” from me.

By: CastanhasDoPara

CastanhasDoPara — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Yeah, if that happened in the US heads would roll. That’s not only creepy but it’s dangerously close to actual terrorism. Like what was that marketing meeting like, “see we slip this pop-up box under the door to scare the shit out of a potential customer. Or piss them off enough that they will never buy our product and will probably tell everybody they know not to as well. It’s brilliant.” To which the boss should have said, “that’s not brilliant, that’s crap, you idiots are fired. GTFO.”

By: jordan

jordan — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

A clever idea, sure, but totally devoid of common sense.

Those moments between first seeing the box and discovering how it got into the apartment will be what creates a lifelong ADT-hater.

I picture the door opening with the box in the foreground. Feet enter. Pause. Grocery bag– complete with french bread and carrot stems– crashes to the floor.

Any ad exec who did not picture that exact same scenario is… hmm, what’s a gentle way of saying ” an idiot”?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Not quite sure of the mechanism yet but found this

http://www.create-this.co.uk/products/direct-mail/pop-ups/

Go cause mischief.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Don’t Chileans use weatherstripping?

By: mmbb

mmbb — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Back in dorm life, one of our pranks used to be to dump out a container of baby powder in front of the door and blow it under the jamb with a fan, coating the room inside with a fine, white, powdery substance. Unfortunately, they immediately thought “cocaine” instead of “anthrax.”

(BTW, Billy Bob Bodine from Lubbock, TX, that pimp is still looking for you.)