Cingular / AT&T Wireless

Brand Campaign: Art Direction, Interactive OOH, Broadcast TV, Print Craft

Cingular built its name on one promise: the fewest dropped calls. At BBDO, I art directed work across the brand’s two biggest stories, that promise and the merger with AT&T Wireless, from a Times Square billboard with a piece missing to national TV and a wedding invitation printed 1.5 million times. The wedding announced a $41 billion union: the merger that created America’s largest wireless carrier, with 46 million customers.

Dropped Calls Times Square Billboard

Hate dropped calls? So does the billboard. The word CALLS tore itself out of the board and landed on the sidewalk below, turning a network claim into a piece of street theater people crossed Times Square to photograph. Recognized as a London International Awards Finalist and winner of two Gold ADDYs, national and regional.

Three photos of the Dropped Calls Times Square billboard: an orange Cingular board reading Hate dropped, with a ragged hole where the word CALLS tore out, the giant CALLS piece resting on the sidewalk below, and passersby stopping to photograph it

Dropped Calls Times Square billboard: “Hate dropped?” with a hole where CALLS tore out and landed on the sidewalk.

Broadcast TV

Two spots that sell the merger’s upside from opposite directions. “Family Dinner” dramatizes the newly enlarged calling community as one enormous dinner table, with room for everyone the merger brought in. “Retro” plays it for comic relief: what happens when a loved one refuses to evolve to the next level of telecommunications.

“Family Dinner”

"Retro"

The Merger, Announced as a Wedding

To commemorate Cingular Wireless’ merger with AT&T Wireless, we announced the union the way it deserved: a wedding invitation, created and printed 1.5 million times for Cingular’s user base. Custom ligatures in the typography, debossed on thick textured stock with deckled edges and rice paper inserts. Direct mail at a scale most brands reserve for postcards, crafted like stationery.

Cingular / AT&T merger wedding invitation: letterpress card announcing the union of Cingular Wireless and AT&T Wireless, with deckled edges and signal-bar motif

Merger wedding invitation: Cingular Wireless & AT&T Wireless “invite you to share in the celebration of our new life as one.” Reception to follow.

Cingular / AT&T merger wedding invitation details: envelope with signal-bar wax seal, orange and blue ribbons in the carrier colors, and vellum insert

Invitation details: signal-bar wax seal, orange and blue ribbons, deckled edges and rice paper insert.

In Brief

Husani Barnwell art directed brand work for Cingular and AT&T Wireless at BBDO, spanning the Dropped Calls Times Square billboard (a London International Awards Finalist and two-time Gold ADDY winner), national broadcast TV and the merger wedding invitation, a 1.5-million-piece exercise in print craft.

Writer: ACD/Writer Jason Lambert