Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Nextel's Yellow Peril

From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 19 Sep 2003 22:53:12 -0400

Nextel's Yellow Peril

09.19.03

If you're anything like us, you'll have been driven to distraction by the
rash of bright yellow billboard ads bearing the words "Do" or "Done" that
 have cropped up all over major metropoli in the U.S. over the last few
weeks.

Irritating, aren't they?

We suspected that a wireless company was probably behind this stroke of
marketing genius, when a large box containing a yellow T-Shirt screaming
"I'm a Doer" [ed. note: now tastefully amended to "I'm a Wanker"] and a
bunch of "Done" stickers arrived at Unstrung the other day. So, it wasn't
that surprising that -- like the Wizard
www.firsttvdrama.com/enterprise/images/wizard.jpg 
stepping out from behind the curtain -- Nextel Communications Inc. revealed itself
as the
promotional perpetrator this week.

Yep, the wireless carrier is attempting to overhaul its image.

Here's what they say about the campaign in their marketing material:

"Yellow is the color of optimism, industry and action. It's the color of
done. And we own it."

The target audience for all this, Nextel chirps, are "Doers: People who
start, finish and move onto the next thing." Evidently, "Don'ters" need not
apply. [Ed. note: That noise you just heard was the sound of the copy editor
collapsing at the inhumanity of it all.]

Leaving aside the questionable concept of actually owning a color, Unstrung
notes associating your brand with yellow can cut both ways. A quick
straw-poll in the office found that the plangent hue can also be connected
with cowardice, jaundice, bile, renal exudation, really nasty leg warmers,
(See http://stuorgs.uidaho.edu/~triclub/images/Ben_in_yellow.jpg)  and...
and...

Wait. Could THIS
http://images.allposters.com/images/102/003_24_806.jpg be Nextel's target
audience?

- Dan Jones, Senior Editor, Unstrung

------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
ReplayTV: CNet Ranked #1 over Tivo!
Instant Replay & Pause live TV.
Special Sale: 50% off!
http://us.click.yahoo.com/UUMW7B/.5qGAA/ySSFAA/61FxlB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/