Have you ever tried to set up an ADSL connection yourself? That can be a pretty frustrating thing to do. There are so many things that can be done slightly different than was intended. So a lot of people end up really frustrated, have to call in the help of friends (that went through the same process before) and sometimes they even have to call in a professional to install the modem.

tapping into frustration
One of the Dutch ISP's (Planet Internet) is currently tapping into that frustration with a marketing campaign. Adds looking like warning dialogs and say 'Repeatedly kicking the monitor did not produce the desired effect' are placed on websites and a number of tv and radio commercials feature people overreacting because of their frustration.


Fake warning dialog as part of the Planet Internet add campaign. It reads:“Repeatedly kicking the monitor did not produce the desired effect'.

You can find one of the TV adds here. (The voice over starts by saying:”Installing adsl does not come easy for everyone...“). Because Planet knows about the frustration they now offer a service man that will install your adsl connection for only 39.95 euro.

thank you
That sounds pretty sympathetic doesn't it? It's not too much money. If you would hire someone to install it for you, you'd probably pay more. But wait a minute. Who gave me that modem to begin with? That was the provider wasn't it? I want adsl, for which I will be paying a considerable amount of money every month. To be gain access to that service I need a modem. My provider supplies me with a modem that I probably can't install (causing the forementioned frustration) and then charges me money to get it to work? And still they manage to make the offer sound sympathetic. That's some pretty good marketing.

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