Distracted driving is a thing of the past in AT&T's Masters Tournament campaign

Ads that warn against distracted driving usually hit the same touchpoints. As the car speeds along, a message pops up on a nondescript phone. Internally, viewers scream “Look at the road, you idiot! There are kids in the car!” and tense for the crash. But in the latest spot in AT&T’s “It Can Wait” campaign, the driver doubles down. After conceding to his family’s demands and putting away his phone, he turns the driver’s seat around to face the passengers and turns on “movie mode.” Rather than careening off the road, though, the car steers itself, just like it was doing all along. This family is taking a trip in the near future, when self-driving cars make texting at the wheel an annoyance, not a deadly habit. The spot from BBDO is directed by Oscar-winner Kathryn Bigelow, best known for “The Hurt Locker” and a series on girls and women who escaped from Boko Haram. It’s running during the 2019 Masters Tournament, along with a series of spots directed by Oscar winner Michel Gondry (“Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). The spots, also from BBDO, highlight AT&T’s Edge-to-Edge technology, as business owners quickly access all points in their supply chain with impossibly convenient and mobile portals. The effects were done on set, rather than with CGI in post. In addition, BBDO created a spot focused on rejuvenating Chicago neighborhoods, and an in-house team made a 30-second spot featuring young female golfers that debuted at the inaugural Augusta National Women’s Amateur tournament.

Distracted driving is a thing of the past in AT&T's Masters Tournament campaign

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