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"You Will" was an
AT&T AT&T Inc., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the w ...
marketing campaign that launched in 1993, consisting of commercials directed by
David Fincher David Andrew Leo Fincher (born August 28, 1962) is an American film director. Often described as one of the preeminent directors of his generation, David Fincher filmography, his films, of which most are psychological thrillers, have collectiv ...
.Remember The AT&T Ads About the Future? You Will
/ref>David Fincher – Other works
/ref> Each ad presented a futuristic scenario beginning with "Have you ever…" and ending with "…you will. And the company that will bring it to you: AT&T." The ads were narrated by
Tom Selleck Thomas William Selleck (; born January 29, 1945) is an American actor. His breakout role was playing private investigator Thomas Magnum in the television series ''Magnum, P.I.'' (1980–1988), for which he received five Emmy Award nominations fo ...
. The creative team that created the ad campaign at N.W. Ayer & Partners were Copy Supervisor Gordon Hasse, Art Supervisor Nick Scordato and Producer Gaston Braun. One of the first
web banner A web banner or banner ad is a form of advertising on the World Wide Web delivered by an ad server. This form of online advertising entails embedding an advertisement into a web page. It is intended to attract traffic to a website by linking t ...
ads ever sold was part of an AT&T campaign that ran on
HotWired ''Hotwired'' (1994–1999) was the first commercial online magazine, launched on October 27, 1994. Although it was part of the print magazine Wired (magazine), ''Wired'', ''Hotwired'' carried original content. History Andrew Anker, Wired ...
starting October 27, 1994, asking "Have you ever clicked your mouse right HERE? You Will". In 2016, technology writer Timothy B. Lee commented that "overall, the ads were remarkably accurate in predicting the cutting-edge technologies of the coming decades. But the ads were mostly wrong about one thing: the company that brought these technologies to the world was ''not'' AT&T. At least not on its own. AT&T does provide some of the infrastructure on which the world's communications flow. But the gadgets and software that brought these futuristic capabilities to consumers were created by a new generation of Silicon Valley companies that mostly didn't exist when these ads were made." The ads won a few different awards at the time, notably the first annual David Ogilvy Award for the most effective campaign supported by research, the 1994 PCIA (Personal Communications Industry Award), and two
ADDY Awards The American Advertising Federation (AAF) is the nation's oldest national advertising industry trade association. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C. AAF has 15 district operations, each located in and representing a different region of the nat ...
.


Innovations

The proposed innovations included:Kicker Studio , AT&T’s “You Will” Ads, 15 Years Later
/ref> *Grocery checkout machines that would process an entire cart at a time without the groceries needing to be removed, presumably via
RFID Radio-frequency identification (RFID) uses electromagnetic fields to automatically identify and track tags attached to objects. An RFID system consists of a tiny radio transponder called a tag, a radio receiver, and a transmitter. When tri ...
or something similar ("Have you ever checked out at the supermarket, a whole cart at a time?") * Telemedicine (" ave you everput your heads together, when you're not together?") *
Intelligent personal assistant A virtual assistant (VA) is a software agent that can perform a range of tasks or services for a user based on user input such as commands or questions, including verbal ones. Such technologies often incorporate chatbot capabilities to strea ...
s ("Have you ever had an assistant who lived in your computer?") *
Videoconferencing Videotelephony (also known as videoconferencing or video calling) is the use of audio signal, audio and video for simultaneous two-way communication. Today, videotelephony is widespread. There are many terms to refer to videotelephony. ''Vide ...
("Have you ever shown up for a meeting in your bare feet?") *
GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based hyperbolic navigation system owned by the United States Space Force and operated by Mission Delta 31. It is one of the global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) that provide geol ...
navigation systems with automatic rerouting based on live traffic ("Have you ever crossed the country without stopping to ask directions?") *
Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for Wireless LAN, local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by ...
/
WAN WAN or Wan may refer to: Language * Wan language of the Ivory Coast * 万/萬 (Pinyin: Wàn), 10,000 in Chinese People * Wan (surname) ( and ), a Chinese surname * Wan (surname 溫), an alternative spelling for the Chinese surname Wen (溫) * ...
, tablet computing and portable
pen computing Pen computing refers to any computer user-interface using a digital pen or Stylus (computing), stylus and Graphics tablet, tablet, over input devices such as a keyboard or a mouse. Historically, pen computing (defined as a computer system employin ...
("Have you ever sent a fax from the beach?") *
Smartwatches A smartwatch is a portable wearable computer that resembles a wristwatch. Most modern smartwatches are operated via a touchscreen, and rely on mobile apps that run on a connected device (such as a smartphone) in order to provide core functions. ...
(" ave you evergotten a phone call, on your wrist?") * Self-service kiosks ("Have you ever renewed your drivers license at a
cash machine An automated teller machine (ATM) is an electronic telecommunications device that enables customers of financial institutions to perform financial transactions, such as cash withdrawals, deposits, funds transfers, balance inquiries or account ...
?") *Real-time online collaboration, envisioned as two students teaching each other their native languages over
videophone Videotelephony (also known as videoconferencing or video calling) is the use of audio signal, audio and video for simultaneous two-way communication. Today, videotelephony is widespread. There are many terms to refer to videotelephony. ''Vide ...
("Have you ever studied with a classmate thousands of miles away?") and, in a separate ad, as a father reading a bed-time story to his child remotely, while they both view the same page of the story on their individual laptops. *Online libraries ("Have you ever borrowed a book, thousands of miles away?") *
Electronic toll collection Electronic toll collection (ETC) is a wireless system to automatically collect the usage fee or Road pricing, toll charged to vehicles using toll roads, HOV lanes, toll bridges, and toll tunnels. It is a faster alternative which is replacing Tol ...
("Have you ever paid a toll without slowing down?") *
Video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos, television shows and films Digital distribution, digitally on request. These multimedia are accessed without a traditional video playback device and a typica ...
("Have you ever watched the movie you wanted to, when you wanted to?") *A combination of video conferencing,
speech recognition Speech recognition is an interdisciplinary subfield of computer science and computational linguistics that develops methodologies and technologies that enable the recognition and translation of spoken language into text by computers. It is also ...
, and
translation software Machine translation is use of computational techniques to translation, translate text or speech from one language to another, including the contextual, idiomatic and pragmatic nuances of both languages. Early approaches were mostly Rule-based ...
(" ave you everconducted business in a language you don't understand?") *
Home automation Home automation or domotics is building automation for a home. A home automation system will monitor and/or control home attributes such as lighting, climate, entertainment systems, and appliances. It may also include home security such ...
(" ave you everkept an eye on your home when you're not at home?") which is accessed in the ad via what resembles a
touchscreen A touchscreen (or touch screen) is a type of electronic visual display, display that can detect touch input from a user. It consists of both an input device (a touch panel) and an output device (a visual display). The touch panel is typically l ...
smartphone A smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, and social media, as well as multi ...
. *
Distance learning Distance education, also known as distance learning, is the education of students who may not always be physically present at school, or where the learner and the teacher are separated in both time and distance; today, it usually involves online ...
(" ave you everlearned special things, from faraway places"?) as a student learns the history of
jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...
via video conference with his teacher.


References

{{Reflist


External links


Press release announcing the campaign moving to the InternetSeries of four ads on YouTubeSix of the ads from adland.tvNew AT&T "You Will" spots created by the AT&T Tech Channel
AT&T American advertising slogans 1993 quotations American television commercials Advertising campaigns 1990s television commercials