Intrigue, Mystery, and AT&T

Yesterday, while I was on Pandora, this ad caught my attention:



However unexciting this simple ad may be, it caused me to pay attention to AT&T for a few moments. Here's why:

I have no conscious recollection of what, exactly, attracted my eyes to the ad. What I do remember is the phrase that I noticed:

"Only on the nation's fastest 3G network"
It isn't that the words "the nation's fastest 3G network" are all that spectacular. It seems that every wireless provider claims to be the best at some aspect of wireless coverage: "the largest 3G network," "the most reliable 3G network," "the only 4G network." I can't remember which is which, and frankly, I don't care.

However, for the very reason that I do NOT care which wireless provider claims to be the best at what, I did not remember who was supposed to be the "fastest" 3G network, and the ad did not immediately tell me which wireless provider it was.

So, despite my apathy, I had to look for the answer.

And there it was, the logo at the bottom right corner - AT&T.

Now it will be fixed in my memory - at least for a while - that AT&T is supposedly "the nation's fastest 3G network."

Why?

Because the ad raised my curiosity. It didn't say, "AT&T is the nation's fastest 3G network." Instead, it referred to someone as the "nation's fastest 3G network," and forced me to discover who that someone was.

The ad raised my curiosity, forced me to ask a question, and caused me to care about the answer. And because I cared, I intentionally sought out - and paid attention to - the answer.

Well done, AT&T. You made me care - just for a moment. Very clever.