10.30.07
1993 AT&T “You Will” Ads with Tom Selleck
Do you remember these advertisements from 1993?
I thought of them recently (maybe after watching the Magnum P.I. DVDs), and wondered how many of AT&T’s “You Will” predictions had come true.
It’s been 14 years since these commercials aired, but all these things have come true in a big way — except for the one about “Have you ever tucked your baby in from a phone booth?”
Public payphones are still awful — at least in the cities I’ve visited. I certainly haven’t seen videophones as a standard, have you?
Incidentally, I don’t own a cell phone — so I seem to see a LOT of public payphones! 
Link (to video on Youtube)
waltzingaustralia said,
October 31, 2007 at 6:47 am
Wow. That’s pretty amazing. I imagine all those things must have been in the works at the time of the ads.
As for the video, maybe cell phones that take photos makes up for their missing that one. (And you’re right — most public pay phones have not made any advances.)
Eric Rice said,
February 13, 2009 at 4:50 am
The video calling is more the iChat/AIM/Skype/Gtalk video spin, technically.
Beyond that, yes, we have those things… but was it AT&T who brought them to us?
Harold said,
July 6, 2009 at 2:51 am
The thing I always remembered was “Have you ever taken a fax…at the beach? You will!”
My reaction was, “The hell I will!”
The Corona ad where a ringing cell phone at the beach is pitched into the ocean feels like a reponse to this commercial.