Rebtel has published a new How it works video, and I think it’s great. In an effort to be culture neutral (and cool, I guess) the actors are blue and red clay figures. They’re very lovable and if it hadn’t been for the male voice talking about his girlfriend, it would have been gender neutral too. Replacing “my girlfriend” with “my sole mate” or “my partner” or even “my cuddly bear” would have taken care of that. It also bothers my sense of proper that that the narrative moves from past tense to present tense. But hey, it’s the web and language is arbitrary anyhow as long as you get your point across, right? (Or maybe not…).
Anyhow, it reminds me of Barbapapa. I loved those stories when I was a kid, but have yet to subject my own son to it. Perhaps I should start with this video, since Barbapapa is about as gender neutral as a boar, like most french childrens book (yeesh).
[Disclosure: I've been doing a lot of interaction design for Rebtel during 2008]
Tags: marketing
November 5, 2008 at 18:48
Colours have meaning as well. Traditionally, for some reason blue is a colour for boys and red is for girls. Still, watching this today, I can’t help but see a male republican trying to reach his democrat girlfriend.
(And no, I don’t see the point in making this gender specific. Women don’t call? They are not on the internet? They don’t want to save money? Or was the caller a woman as well?)