Virgin Mobile to New Yorkers: Youre stupid, buy our plans!
Virgin Mobile recently launched a new You Rule campaign in New York City, targeting specific neighborhoods and their associated identities. But the ads arent coming off so much as praising as they are insulting. Theyve even accidentally put neighborhood-specific boards in the [wrong neighborhoods]. The Staten Island ads are particularly gruesome; heres the text found all over the borough: Staten Island, you rule. The name says it all. You are truly an island, physically and mentally. Thank you for your front yards, detached garages and SUVs. Thank you for the ferrythe best cheap date ever. Thank you for being our down-to-earth, suburban, predominantly Italian-American cousins. To show our gratitude, weve got something for you. No, not baked ziticell phone plans without annual contracts, so youre not locked in. And with no annual contract, youre free to move between our other plans. Like you would on a bridge or ferry.
Hold on a minute, buddy. Lets count the oopsies in this ad: Staten Islanders are closed minded; they own the worst cars imaginable; they're not real New Yorkers, theyre only the cousins of New Yorkers; all they think about is baked ziti; and, perhaps the most heinous, theyre scared of commitment!
Some of the boards in other boroughs get just as nasty, [trash-talking downtowners] by calling them scruffy, portraying Upper Eastsiders as stuck up and overly concerned with manners, making snide comments and innuendos about the [gay scene in Chelsea](http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--virginmobileads0531may31,0,7888667.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork) and generally upholding various stereotypes in a particularly annoying fashion. How about this: Virgin Mobile, you suck.
Photo courtesy of [x-eyedblonde on Flickr]