Penn. detention scandal suggests next Sprint ad: What if judges ran the world?

How much time was spent in analyzing the commercial? Drawing a parallel between a humorous commercial and crooked judges, first and foremost, distracts from the issue– the story here has nothing to do with Sprint or its advertising. In addition, gleaning unintended messages from a commercial seems to me a profound waste of time. Shall we pick on some more Sprint ads? What about the “if Firefighters ran the world” commercial– this obviously denigrates the dedication and challenges faced by our legislators. Perhaps we can have an article about that as well. How about providing some more detail on the judges, their relationship with these detention centers, and how the children were impacted, rather than drawing parallels to advertising that do not actually exist.

Thank you for the comment, dandan. At the risk of sinking more time into this, here’s a response. I did go to some effort to read up on what happened in Pennsylvania so I could distill it here and provide what I thought were the best links, one for the latest news, the other for an audio slideshow by the AP that shows the impact on a couple of the kids, and offers further links to more stories from the local Scranton newspaper. But I meant in the post to point out how the humorous Sprint ad envisions a world not unlike the world the judges created in western Pennsylvania, where government and private business converge to make a profit-based industry out of putting kids into detention.

The author seems to fail to understand the commericial intends to showcase the possiblities of excellent and realtime communications- and one industry that is a clear leader in logiistics are shipping companies. It is not some cautionary tale of industry taking over government areas- although there are plenty of private and charter schools exsist-but meant as a funny fantasy of traking a lost child just like a lost package- and tracking him down in under a minute. The correleation between Judges who sell children into workcamps and juvenile prisons at the expense of the constitution, rule of law, and all common sense and decency and a trite commericial are weak, sad, and slightly offensive. Sprint has nothing to do with the actions of the two judges who in a very real sense has destroyed countless lives before they even had a chance to blossom. Sprint demonstrating that using a 2-way communicator to find missing children is not some sinister plot- but showcase a merging of technology and tight procedure to a positive outcome. There is little to no positive outcome that will result from the corrupt judges other than they have been stopped.

dearborn, thanks for the comment. I do understand that the Sprint commercial has no direct relationship to the judge scandal and that it’s meant to be funny. It is funny. I laugh when I see it. But I believe corporate communications — especially at their most sophisticated and aimed at the broadest possible audience (Super Bowl ads) — can have multiple, even unintended meanings and are open to interpretation. I submit that there is something sinister about the Sprint ads that wasn’t apparent until the judges story broke — something about the efficiency of punishment and profit exhibited in both, in the context of high-school-age children. But even so, judging by the thoughtful comments here, it’s in the eye and mind of the beholder.

Soylent Green is people… It’s people I tell you!!!

In an era when most of the media cover “Octo-Mom” non-stop as if it is the most imporant issue, it saddens me to see everything reduced to the lowest possible common denominator. A violation so eggregious as Judges who are sworn to protect and uphold the law and the constitution hatch a plan to close down a municpal facility and litteraly sell “tenants” – children to a for profit juvenile correctional facility. Somehow, are we to believe that that we need to relate this back to the media and a commerical? As least I’ll give the author credit for not adding another vapid “Octo-Mom” story where it seems they believe America really needs to know her coming as goings and maybe plastic surgery or not.

This whole commercial scene is rather stupid and disgusting. I have seen the “New Yorkish” or “Jewish” or “Italiano” worthless lame-brain mouthy bozo, giving senseless and unnecessary directions, before. It’s so lame and totally, totally without merit. I really don’t care what “they” are trying to sale. It’s sickening. I switch channels the moment that it begins. If I have the remote already in my palm it rarely ever starts. Yes, my thumb is THAT QUICK!!