Are these AT&T commercials with the kids scripted?

My guess is that they’re only loosely scripted and that the kids are prepped for the kind of questions they’ll be asked… but then a LOT of footage is shot to get the kind of responses/reactions desired. Kids that age, I learned in my own experience shooting commercials and as any parent knows, come up with amazing stuff spontaneously that _never_could have been scripted.

I assumed that they are. The kids look awfully pleased with themselves, as if they’ve been preparing their lines. Child actors in commercials is nothing new.

I hate those ads. The whole message is that AT&T is so obviously superior that a child could understand this. Who knew you could sell things by infantilizing your target market…

I agree with @bookish1 about the condescending message.

Oh. Those are ATT commercials? I honestly got so hung up on the preciousness of the kids (whom I hate) that I didn’t pay any attention to what the ad was for. A lot of money there gone to waste, I bet.

I work for AT&T, and I will tell you the commercials are a failure because, while I enjoy them, I didn’t remember that they were commercials for AT&T.
If they were unscripted, the guy is a genius for not letting the girl interrupt him while he was watching the boy moving his hands and head erratically.

AT&T has never stated whether they’re scripted or not.

I personally hate them and have to disagree with you that they don’t get annoying. Maybe it’s because I’m not a big fan of kids, but they get on my nerves. For example, I love accents, but that kid’s voice on the tree house ad makes me want to kill myself.

Concerning child actors:

some of em are hilarious. I doubt they are scripted simply because the stuff the kids come up with is better material than they could write.

But scripted or not, condescending or not, annoying or not…. this campaign is marketing genius. Furthermore, they don’t care that livelaughlove finds the kids irritating (which kind of contradicts his username), or that bookish thinks it’s insulting. You guys are the small percentage outside their target scope.

For the people they are targeting, this stuff works and they know it.

Come on, you get some of the best banter in these commercials, like… “Would you like it if your grandma was fast?” .... “I bet she would like it if she was fast”.

And let’s not forget ‘tape a cheetah to her back’.

They seem very rehearsed to me.

@ragingloli I don’t think I’ve ever seen Sean Lock so animated.

@gambitking First of all, I’m not a “he.” Second, nothing I said contradicts my username. If my username was “laughsateverything”, that would be a contradiction. I laugh at things I find funny or amusing. These commercials don’t fit the bill to me. But, like I said, I’m not too big on kids. I never said my opinion was fact or that everyone feels as I do.

Additionally, it’s arguable that the marketing technique is “genius” – a lot of people, even those who love the commercials, didn’t even realize what the ad was for. That’s what I call a marketing failure. And correct me if I’m wrong, but the point of advertising is to appeal to as many people in your target population as possible. Who is their target population? People who use cell phones – pretty much everyone these days. So they should care what everyone thinks about the ads.

I’d like to see statistics showing those who dislike the ads are the minority. I’m not saying we’re definitely not the minority, but simply saying we are doesn’t make it true.

Scripted. When they talked about disco and did a John Travolta move, I knew they wouldn’t come up with that themselves…..way to young

I actually think the dude is the star of those commercials. He’s got a future as a game show host or possibly hosting a revival of the old 60s TV show Candid Camera. His dead pan mock seriousness is priceless.

You people are talking about it, getting upset over it and arguing – that makes it genius!