“Sprint’s probably going to want to pull its latest T-Mobile attack ad once people see it and realize how truly tasteless it sounds,” Jacob Kastrenakes reports for The Verge.
“The ad features a white woman describing T-Mobile as ‘ghetto’ while Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure, sitting beside her, nods and laughs,” Kastrenakes reports. “‘People who have T-Mobile are just like, why do you have T-Mobile?’ the woman asks.”
“While Sprint may well try to write it off as a quote from an actual woman — ‘Actual Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T customers. No actors,’ the ad reads — the fact is that Sprint chose this footage and put it on the web,” Kastrenakes reports.
Honest answers from real people on my #ListeningTour across the country. Sometimes the truth hurts, @TMobile https://t.co/4WHoDLNsbj
— Marcelo Claure (@marceloclaure) April 12, 2016
[protected-iframe id=”e80b79c9fde1542fa1f9bca6d07d3ae6-17146794-18685410″ info=”http://player.ooyala.com/iframe.js#ec=hiNTBzMjE6Yd8TbkEQonPMzd0Qatin18&pbid=dcc84e41db014454b08662a766057e2b” width=”590px” height=”332px”]
Late night in an update, Kastrenakes reported: “Sprint has pulled the video after Claure apologized in a tweet.”
My job is to listen to consumers. Our point was to share customer views. Bad judgment on our part. Apologies. Taking the video down.
— Marcelo Claure (@marceloclaure) April 13, 2016
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Sprint’s desperation is palpable.
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T-Mobile offering $200 off any iPad when you buy an iPhone – April 5, 2016
T-Mobile offer: Buy one Apple iPhone, get a second for half price – March 31, 2016
Did no one think that passing on casual racism with the excuse a customer said it was really no excuse at all. PC or not its just better avoided.
Meh. Nothing racist casual or otherwise about it. If someone wants to see everything through race colored glasses, the racism is theirs, no one else’s. Free, and I mean FREE speech is more valuable than the moronic sensitivities of the person(s) who have a problem with the word ghetto.
“If someone wants to see everything through race colored glasses, the racism is theirs, no one else’s. ”
I believe you just claimed there is no such thing as racism, and that seeing racism is itself racism. You do see the logical paradox with those two claims, don’t you?
Anyway, on your claim of the non-existence of racism, I’m sorry to speak for others, but since they’re dead, I think I will: Six million holocaust victims, countless victims of 150 years of KKK terrorism, the family of Martin Luther King Jr, and god knows how many other millions of people killed for being of the Wrong Race would disagree.
Does that mean, blacks killing other blacks in Chicago are racist?!?
Or since one half in this scenario can’t speak for themselves, would you care to?!
I’ve been called racist by people who knew nothing about me solely for differing political philosophy then the current White House occupant. Isn’t that seeing racism when there isn’t any there?!
I know you’re just ignorantly spouting off crap but I’ll take it at face value and answer anyway.
Blacks killing blacks would be racist if they killed them because they were black or for some other racial reason. Same thing as when the KKK kills whites because they’re sympathetic to minorities. That’s racist. Otherwise no not so much. Not sure where you’re going with that though… maybe you were bout to get to a point?
I’d speak for them if I had any idea what you were trying to say.
If you’ve been called racist, maybe, just maybe, you’ve misunderstood the reason for that. Maybe it wasn’t the reason you just gave but something that you don’t understand. Like maybe you had just made some racist comment, or defended racism. Just guessing. I wasn’t there. You probably will understand it if you ask the people who said that and give it some honest consideration and reflection instead of assuming that those saying it are wrong.
Wait, getto is racist? Which race cause I’m pretty confused by your comment.
Or is it you that is racist and just looking to tie everything to one particular race? Pretty sure there is just as many whites in our getto’s as blacks, hispanics, asians, islanders, indian’s (not the native american ones). Not sure where you live but the getto’s, slums, or homeless camps in my area don’t have a race issue.
It’s pretty much a human issue. Hello, “all lives matter”.
At this rate, saying “Hello” to a woman will label somebody as sexist. This PC crap has gotten out of hand, as playing the race card has also. The biggest racists are the ones that constantly harp and apply every little slight to ‘racism’ in the name of PC.
Your lack of Italian is showing.
Not to mention their lack of Jewish history. Are there a lot of black Jews? Asking for a friend.
Metro PCS is Ghetto… maybe Virgin Mobile too.
Just a ditz set to “auto-talk.”
Reminds me of Sartre: “Things are entirely what they appear to be, and behind them is nothing.”
If that was supposed to make me feel good about Sprint, it did just the opposite. Just the fact they published this makes me question the company’s leadership.
There’s nothing “racist” about the word “ghetto.” Ghettos existed long before the U.S.A. did and its specific definition of “ghetto” arose.
Posted by coincidence from Boston’s North End which, by definition is a “ghetto,” too, but is hardly unrefined or cheap.
The word “ghetto” has obscured and conflictive etymology, which makes it hard to discern its original meaning, but in general, how it’s perceived, is “an area of stressed social, economic, and legal pressure.”
In America today, the most common and frequently used meaning for the word ‘ghetto’ is a poor black neighbourhood (South Bronx, South Central, South Side…). When uttered by a white, middle-class person, it has quite clear and unambiguous racist colour to it.
Oh please. When uttered by a white person. How the hell do white people ever have a conversation these days without fearing they’re going to “utter” some trigger word.
We really only take freely amongst ourselves, of course.
If the goal of screaming “racist” over pretty much every little thing uttered wasn’t to further divide the races, it should have been.
I wish it weren’t so, but regrettably, it is. For some reason or another, there are words that a white person simply cannot say without him being perceived as racist.
There was an episode on Seinfeld, years (decades?) ago, dealing with the issues of political correctness on issues of race, where one of the main characters (Elaine) was dating a man she thought was black. During the course of the episode, their encounters kept dancing around the “interracial relationship” question, never quite addressing it, until eventually he hears her saying to someone that “her boyfriend is black”, to which he answered “No, I’m not!”, followed by her questioning his references to their interracial relationship, to which he replied: “But I thought you were Hispanic!”. The punch line was “So we are basically just two white people dating…??”, followed by “Should we be talking about this…?” The episode was a typical Seinfeldian humour poking fun at the political correctness of the time.
You’re all completely missing the point. To anyone under 30, the word “ghetto” simply means “crap” or “low class”. Example: just five minutes before I read this MDN thread, I read a Yelp review of a restaurant that is run down, is dirty, has poor service, and is full of furniture that is literally falling apart. One reviewer, who is African-American, described this place as “sooooo ghetto”.
Tell me what’s racist about that.
That’s so Ghetto is the new That’s so Gay.
Final stop: That’s so White. End of the line, folks.
Hook nose princess spouting her 2 cents out of the orifice she calls a mouth. A tea bagging would’ve been more appropriate.
As for that CEO, I was taught if I don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say it at all.
Your first two sentences demonstrate that you didn’t learn what you were taught.
“This video has been removed by the user.”
Now, I’m a Sprint customer, as well as a salesperson. In today’s society, we need to be more careful on how we speak to each other. Tact and deference, I feel, is a lost skill that we need to bring back, because we’re better than that.
Accentuate the qualities of your product — don’t berate others.
Here is another copy of the video:
Note the:
– embarrassment
– apologetic attitude
– justification
– group approval
Sprint sleezy advertising.
Stop it white people. You’re making yourselves look foolish.
Go ahead say ghetto. People do al, the time! Say it! It’s ok! No one gives a shit except idiots!
So is Tim Cook pulling iPhones from Sprint yet? Has Obama tasked the Justice Department to investigate Sprint for racism and diversity issues yet? Are the #blacklivesmatter folks on their way to march in front of T-mobile or are they still negotiating their fee from George Soros? How big is this one?
Are the going to picket Graceland because Elvis said the word ghetto, repeatedly, in one of his songs. Can’t remember the name of the song but I have that bit of it running in my head now.
She’s partly right: T-Mobile is ghetto, but so is Sprint. And Cingular (AT&T Mobility) or Verizon aren’t exactly utopias, either. Wireless carriers suck in the U.S.A. They’re all way too expensive and way too slow.
I remember when the word “racist” meant something. Now it’s just shit liberals say.
There are still some racists around, but in the USA you have to go visit a college admissions office to find them. They’re the ones fucking over the Asian kids to make room for mediocre non-Asian kids.
For really blatant racism, you need to visit the middle east.
-jcr
Thank you so much for reminding me of one of the songs I always loved. Forgot about it for 25 years. Must dig it out.
Pull the sticks outta yer asses and dance. We used to sing about the ghetto. No fear uttering the word.
Even white guys sang about the ghetto. No fear. Let’s do the barrio next. Is barrio racist now too?
I was too late with my reply to one of your previous posts. Oh well, it’s the thought …
Sprint has consistently been abusive in its marketing. It’s the main reason I’ve never bothered with them and championed their decline. That Sprint would stoop to bad-mouth marketing is no surprise at all.
What’s interesting is Sprint marketing morons’ fetish with T-Mobile. You’d think they were ex-lovers. Oh yeah, they are!
Sprint and T-Mobile’s failed merger: What went wrong…
MetroPCS now that’s a ghetto cell phone provider! Owned by
T-Mobile
I switch to T-Mobile from AT&T when I got my 6S+. I’m seeing LTE speeds in the 70 to 90 Megabits range. Most I ever saw from AT&T was 25. Bought an unlimited data plan, and it’s costing me $30/month less than my grandfathered AT&T plan.
Sprint’s ad is an example of why it’s bloody stupid to insult the customers you want to win away from your competition.
-jcr
Ghetto? I didn’t know Jewish people used T-Mobile, it being owned by Deutsche Telekom – from the former state owned Deutsche Bundespost.
The PC police are killing America.
I do not know if T-Mobile is Ghetto, but Android surely is.
Funny, whenever I hear Sprint I think crappy carrier with shitty coverage. Oh well, to each is own I guess.