AT&T's moving, stomach-turning ad against phone use while driving
Technically Incorrect: The latest video in AT&T's "It Can Wait" campaign offers the story of a mother who scanned social media just at the wrong time.
Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.
Perhaps we're all immune from being shocked anymore.
Any amount of carnage depicted, any amount of lecturing, cajoling and pleading not to use our phones while driving falls on deaf ears and blind eyes.
But some keep trying, simply because it's the right thing to do. Or because they can't think of any other way to make people think.
In the latest of its "It Can Wait" campaign, AT&T offers a mini-movie that shows how checking social media while driving can destroy lives.
The very virtue of the film lies in its slow build-up. The very power comes from having a little investment in and knowledge of the characters before a mom's need to check social media changes everything.
"Everyone loves the picture I posted of you," says mom to her little daughter. Mom had been alerted by a ping from her phone.
And then lives are shattered.
It's all too familiar a scenario. Earlier this year, reports emerged that a Wisconsin woman was allegedly on Facebook just before a crash that killed her daughter and two nieces. In 2013, 3,154 people were killed in motor vehicle crashes involving distracted drivers (which includes texting and using a phone as well as eating, adjusting the radio and other activities), according to the US Department of Transportation.
Will we ever be persuaded to change our habits? I have my doubts. Humans are too superficial and thoughtless to do anything other than they do.
It doesn't hurt, though, to be occasionally reminded of the hurt we thoughtlessly cause.