Ampd Mobile Senator and Rock Star

Amp’d Mobile is a new wireless carrier aimed at 18 to 35 year olds in the United States, beginning a ‘soft launch’ on December 15. The new company is using Verizon‘s EvDO network, available in select US cities, to provide video on demand, music downloads, live event coverage and wireless 3D games – all at broadband speed. In November Amp’d announced that they’d become the wireless partner for Break.com, a viral video web site. To get themselves noticed in the target market Amp’d Mobile have used a campaign of TV spots encouraging people to stay alive long enough for the launch. The ads are linked with print and ‘guerrilla’ advertising, and a micro site of short video clips in SWF format. (NOTE: Ampd filed for bankruptcy in June 2007 and discontinued service in July 2007.)

Ampd Mobile Senator

Senator

A man in a suit lies dead on the bed in a cheap hotel room. On top of him is a woman dressed in panties and bra, desperately trying to revive him. As she thumps his chest she yells at him:
“Senator, Senator….oh no you don’t, you can’t go, you can’t leave, if you leave you’ll miss this new phone, it has an MP-3 player, 3-D video games and really cool graphics, come on, come on damn it!” Then the screen reads “Try not to die. Amp’d Mobile is coming.”

Rockstar

A hotel cleaner walks into a hotel room and discovers a shirtless rock star on the floor, perhaps in a drugs-induced coma. She takes his hand and yells at him in Spanish, “What have you done? You are such a fool. Why risk your life? A new phone is coming out that plays MP3s, video games, and video clips. Look at you now. Are you listening to me?” Once again the screen reads “Try not to die. Amp’d Mobile is coming.”

Credits

The ads were developed by Taxi, New York, under the eye of chief creative officer Paul Lavoie, creative director/copywriter Dan Morales, art directors Paul Caiozzo and Brandon Mugar, copywriter Nathan Frank, executive producer Nick Felder, account manager Heather Doutt, group account supervisor Rich Muhlstock.

Filming was shot by director Tom Kuntz via MJZ with line producer Scott Kaplan and director of photography Bryan Newman.

Editor was Dave Koza at MacKenzie Cutler with assistant editor Mona Salma and executive producer Melissa Miller.

UPDATE

See my new post (April 8, 2006) on the Amp’d Mobile Bus TV Ad.

40 Replies to “Ampd Mobile Senator and Rock Star”

  1. Hello,
    i have seen the ad of the woman in her bra and panties on top of the dead man,and so has my daughter! By accident! I am really upset about this commercial as well as other parents i know. I already have parental control on the Cable TV. Who knew you are going to need it for a commercial!! What is wrong with these people? They probably don’t have children!! There should be a warning label that comes up before this commercials is alllowed to air! This is the problem of the world today. All of our world is going to hell in a hand basket! All people think about is sex! There are other ways of getting their point across without the sleazy way out? I think the ad is pointless and really ticked off a lot of parents, including me!

  2. This new Amp’d Mobile is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard and is going to flop, GAURANTEED! As soon as I read that the C.E.O. of Amp’d Mobile proclaimed he was a “youth marketing expert” I knew it was a total joke.

  3. What a Moron! I can’t imagine a well runcompany spending a @#$#$ load of dollars on an add campaign directed at this demographic and the site doesn’t work on Fire Fox. “youth marketing expert” ? CEO… more like T.O.A.S.T.
    Totally
    Overblown
    Asshole
    Short on
    Talent
    Must have a rich Uncle 🙂

  4. ^

    Wow. How long have you been saving that acrostic for? Savage wit you got there, buddy.

    The Amp’d Mobile site works fine under Firefox.

    “OMG! WON’T SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN!” Bahahaha. Dork.

    You all need a spell checker…GAURANTEED!

  5. Tested it out. Competative Prices and good quality sound/features. Planning to switch when my plan runs out at t-mobile.

  6. I also had trouble reading the company site using Firefox.

    I’ve seen this “Whore pounding on the Senator” ad twice and I can’t believe this on TV. I don’t have young children, but this is just low-class tacky. Imagine being the widow or child of a man who died of a heart attack (with or without a whore) and seeing this ad. Anyone who has tried to revive a heart attack victim using CPR would find this ad offensive, IMO. It is not a laughing matter.

    Anyway, each time I have missed the company name/logo because I’m ranting by the end of the ad. I had to replay it on TIVO to get the company name.

  7. First off im not a friend of the CEO of Ampd mobile. I just want to say a couple of things to the moms out there who think the comercial is bullsh*&. The women in the comercial is indeed in braw and panties, do you not realize that a good number of youth advertisements incorporate sex somehow in the ads…The simple fact of the matter is that sex does indeed sell. Look at the clothing companies, hell beer ads…take a ride into NYC or montreal with your children, what is around you? billboards busses taxis filled with glamorous rich girls selling perfume designer clothes abercrombie and fitch and many other companies that target the youth. Who the hell else are they going to target? Abercrombie isnt going to have a model with a massive a**. That wont sell! So yes they do target the youth this is how bussiness works, this is how America is ran today. And they do show dead people on comercials big effin’ deal! Look at the cartoons Bugs Bunny gets his head blown off big the cigar smokin’ redneck. ohh but thats ok to watch because the poor wittle rabbit always seems to come back. This can make children to believe that it is ok to aim a gun at someone, and hey why were at it lets pull the trigger you wont die. The CEO of Ampd mobile is in fact a very talented person. He is in his mid 30’s and created the worlds fastest growing prepaid cellphone service, Boost mobile. He also has major investors such as MTV ( who also own TV land, Comedy Central, Spike Tv, VH1, MTVU,MTV2, and many others). Does he still sound like a dummy? Yeah i dont think so. And ya know ya cant please everyone, yeah someones husband or loved one might have passed away due to a heart attack but you cant please everyone. Just look at it this way; Americans spend so much time and effort to try and please the minority and people of different religions…Lets say happy holidays instead of merry christmas? We have spent so much time on pleasing these cultures and minotities that we have forgot about our own. We are turning discrimination around on ourselves. I have nothing more to say and i didn’t even want to say as much as i did but i just get so worked up over this.

  8. Though quite honestly I don’t have too much info about ampd yet (thats why i’m lookin at posts) I can say with some certainty that the claims made about the ads are a bit outrageous. To honestly believe that you or your child is going to be horribly affected by a few ads doesn’t say much about YOUR parenting style now does it? Go ahead, blame TV, blame movies and ads, blame pop culture, as long as you don’t have to blame yourself right? As long as you can keep convincing yourself that it’s not you but the world that needs to change you will continue to inhibit yourself and you children -why do I say this? Think about it this way, when you focus all your energy to make something cease, all you’re really doing is feeding it more, by giving it all the attention it was trying to get. Everyone knows that the world CAN and maybe SHOULD be better in a lot of ways, but the planet can’t change to suit you, overnight or ever. Be a HUMAN BEING, adapt to your environment, lower animals don’t seem to have much trouble, why are you?

  9. OH MY GOD! My kids just saw the Senator ad as I was away doing my own thing and letting the TV play parent. Now my kids smoke pot and steal from stores! I blame liberals!

  10. I found the ads kinda funny.
    if you are soo worried about this, just deprive your kids from tv or make them watch that little kid’s crap just to show how much of a caring parent you are. Or let them see what the world is and don’t be a pussy

  11. Just let the parents complain about the stupid commercial without trying to belittle them please. “Be a HUMAN BEING, adapt to your environment, lower animals don’t seem to have much trouble, why are you?” What is that? Why would you write something like that to someone you don’t know? Keep your degrading comments directed to the commercial, not to another “HUMAN BEING”.

  12. I somehow managed to live through commercials, load the site with Fire Fox and I’ve met the CEO. I got a phone with headphones and I can shop for music when I stand in line. Life’s pretty good.

  13. The commercial is indeed ridiculous. They surely tried pretty d*mn hard to get attention. It was totally unnecessary and inappropriate. By the way, if you morons have no idea why this commercial is offensive, please keep your ignorant comments to yourself.

  14. ummm…i just wanted to say that as a parent i dnt believe that it offended me…my children asked me wut was going on…there is one of two ways u can approach it,,,tell them a nice thing that its really not…or you can take ur children out of the bubble you like to keep them out of called reality…sooner or later they are going to find out…where do you want them to learn it from…their firends? or you?…hers where you become a parent

  15. I just like alot of you talking about the youth market. How old are you? Are you saying the youth can’t afford it? Also, THERE COMMERCIALS! Relax, why would you get so angry over a commercial. Save your energy and use it on something useful, people like that created meds called prozac. Im 19 and it interested me, seems like a reliable service and I might switch. Nice phones, affordable plans, plenty of options. Why the hell not?

  16. “By the way, if you morons have no idea why this commercial is offensive, please keep your ignorant comments to yourself.”

    This is a forum to express. Don’t attempt to limit someones ability to express themselves because you take offense to 30seconds of images on a screen. Also I think your comment is more “ignorant” than the ones posted above. Are you a moron because I take offense to what you said more than I do to the amp’d commerical. To me , yes you are, thats my opioion and im expressing it freely. Thank you INTERNET! Why should I keep my “degrading comments” directed to the commerical and not another human being? You people can’t handle criticism? Then don’t post what you think. Simple as that.

  17. Hey people. It’s good to see people engaging with this ad. That’s one of the purposes of this blog – to provide a forum where you can express your appreciation or distaste. But do use some courtesy in your comments. Please use “I statements” to talk about where you’re coming from and why. Personally, as a parent I wouldn’t be happy with the ad being shown in family viewing hours. However it blends in with many of the programmes shown after 8.30 pm such as CSI.

  18. I agree. The problems with children seeing “unapropriate” images on TV are all relative. Frankly, even during so-called family viewing hours, there are far more offensive things than sexual references. What about say, the power rangers, or any other action cartoon, etc. These depict violence. Human beings inflicting pain and injury on other beings. And somehow this isn’t as bad as sex.

    Why Oh Why, Amerika, are we so wrapped up about sex? Why can we set junior down in front of the TV and not bat an eye when red and blue do-gooders karate chop the crap out of each other, but as soon as someone gets a little too amorous or a little too close to naked, pow, everyone writes to the FCC.

    Why is violence condoned and sexual love shunned?

    WHY WHY WHY?

    Why do we have more teen suicide and violence (including sexual assault) than the Europian nations?

    Maybe it’s NOT teaching our children about sex (other than “it’s wrong”), the forbidden fruit complex, as it were.

    But what do I know?

  19. Your wrong (Anonymous,December 17,2005) and others. What is wrong with this world is:people get so upset at a f**kin commercial and don’t even worry this country is lead by a “president”? that lies and kills THOUSANDS of innocent people with his fixation the control the world. Let some air out of your tires,take a hot bath,hopefully get laid and just relax,there are more important issues in this world that directly affect “the children” than a commercial.

  20. About the ADs, I loved them. I thought they were very funny.

    As for AMPD, I am a current user. Their customer serivce seems to be good; however the company seems to be starting out very slowly. Some dislkes: I do not know any other AMPD user in Chicago. AMPD mobile gave me a phone number for one of the distant chicago suburbs (I live in Chicago. Apparently there are no 773 or 312 area codes available yet they claim). The new JET phone seems to have a mind of it’s own. Reminds me of Windows OS in the early years when the only way to fix the problem was to “reboot”

    Likes: I seem to get better clearer reception/talk using AMPD then I did get using Cingular. AMPD offers better plan than Cingular currently does. AMPD customer service seems to be more “customer oriented” than Cingular. If all goes well with AMPD and they deliver as they claim they will I will most likely end my plan with Cingular in a couple of months.

  21. whether or not you like this commercial, it looks the the company did get their objective accomplished; people are talking about it.

  22. These commercials have certainly succeeded at getting some immediate notoriety. Let’s keep an eye on this company.

  23. Investor value is created by attracting attention AND by satisfying and keeping customers over the long run … while making a profit. Dropping my pants in the school cafeteria will get a lot of attention but it won’t bring in any money unless I can deliver a service, related to my “pants dropping” advertisement, that people are willing to pay for. AMPD’s ads indicate a clear desire for attention but no clarity for why it deserves to get our attention. Maybe they don’t have that figured out yet.

  24. You guys who are upset with the ads…SHUT UP…The ads is what brought me over to AMP’D. They are better any other provider out there right now…The commercials are not more graphic than anything else on TV..so give it a rest.
    Ampd totally knows what they are doing

  25. The ads made you take notice didn’t they?! Success. You all just proved them effective – Like them or not. Enough said.

  26. I have not seen the bra/panty chick but the one I saw with the guy on the bus….ha! ha! Now that’s funny. I can’t get it out of my head! He tells the Black chick “shake your junk” and boy does she shake it. From a marketing aspect–coming from a Marketing Communications Major THESE COMMERCIALS ARE BRILLIANT! Like anonymous said in the listing above, you took notice didn’t you 🙂 P.S. As for the children, well that debate is better left in the hands of the FCC and parents who choose to.. or not to supervise our future leaders while then go thought life.

  27. Ive seen all of the ampd commercials I think they are funny. but anyways I am a film student so I natually have to make alot of phone calls. Ampd is the only phone company I have found that gives you a plan with unlimited anytime minutes. I just signed up. I havnt gotten my phone yet. But I can’t wait.

  28. The only reason Ampd is selling so well is because, thanks to our failing nationwide public education system and severe lack of intellect within the popular media industry, there are PLENTY of half-witted jackasses who actually think these ads are clever. Maybe I paid too much attention while in college. Maybe my parents just did too good a job of bringing me up in an intelligent, free-thinking environment. Or, gasp, maybe I actually prefer to save my attentions for humor of substance. But on the thankfully few occasions I’ve bumped into Ampd’s pointlessly stupid ads, and especially heard that annoying man’s accent on the “bus” commercial, well, it just takes my opinion of the broad American youth demographic down a notch. And it only gets worse, knowing that plenty of them are actually listening to said commercials, and buying the products. Sad, just plain sad. Look in the mirror, kids, and try thinking for yourselves – the future is yours. Don’t screw it up by buying into this garbage.

  29. will all of you hush……….the commercials are funny….and a blast to film…Im the main girl in the one at the party…telling the guy to stuff ham in his pants, the girl to play the piano with her face, the other girl to bob for fish….anyway..it was fun..the phone sounds cool……get off it people…they are just commercial…geez…. http://www.myspace.com/starlett79

  30. I think the commercials was intresting and sometimes it just good to look at things and move on. I am very pleased with amp’d mobil cause they will help me stay in touch with my husband who is living in canada. So even though it hurt some family they are helping others and i’m very greatful. Some people should slow down and realize you only have one life to live and why not be happy, stop getting angry at every little thing. Rather than getting angry at them just support them. That’s all i have to say and my only request is if u disagree with me say it nicely not rude cause i wounder why some parents were complaining when they themselves wasnt acting mature to begin with.

  31. I forgot to mention the customer support is awesome, they are realy nice and they sure know there stuff, I was amazed. Also i dont have the phone yet but i’m getting it this weekend, you know what’s also good about them if your not pleased with your plan that u choose u can pick another one and it start all over again. I’ve had to deal with alot of mobil plans and i’m very impressed with amp’d mobil. thumbs up to amp’d mobil thanks for thinking about the people.

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