US Cellular

Bad Ad: A talking robot twirls one end of a jump rope. A young girl twirls the other end as her friend jumps in the middle. The robot suddenly stops twirling the rope to tell us about the US Cellular battery swap program. The girl twirling the rope looks (understandably) puzzled about the robot's actions (or lack thereof). We don't get to see how the jumping girl reacts.

My Aditude: Why does US Cellular have a robot for a spokesman(?) in the first place? There isn't much he (It has a male voice.) does or says that is typically robotic, so why not have a human play the role? Would that have been too expensive?

Why is this set in a jump rope scene? What does that have to do with swapping batteries? Nothing.

Marketing failure: This ad is supposed to appeal to cell phone owners who don't remember or don't like to or don't want to plug in their cell phones to recharge them regularly. Or perhaps for those who have phones that don't hold a charge very well. The problem is that there aren't many children who could take advantage of a battery swap plan like this, mainly because they can't drive yet.