What Patti LuPone’s Cell Snatch Means for Advertisers in a Digital World

Patti LuPone’s recent one-woman-stand against her opponent – the ever-evil theater-texter – was an inevitable ricochet caused by our uber-connectedness. Depending on how you look at our mobile world, you might attribute this to the Vegas-style flash and pop of the phone’s sound and lightshow, or perhaps to the very human fear of missing out on something (see Verizon’s ‘FOMO,’ or, Fear-of-Missing-Out).

Either way, Patti’s reaction is just the personification of what most people in her position are thinking – and by ‘her position,’ I don’t mean her standing on stage, I mean her role as one human being trying to communicate with another. History tells us that the pendulum swings both ways, and in this case, we’re already seeing Millennials in the workplace embracing face-to-face communication and eschewing digital means. However, we’re far from returning to our days-of-old, round-the-fire storytelling ways in which all of our senses were engaged in human-to-human interaction.

Which brings us back to Patti. Patti is the leading edge of a movement towards human interaction, and as advertisers, we must come to terms with the balance of humanity and technology. However, ‘balance’ might be the wrong word; instead, we should use ‘accuracy.’ The accurate way to reach humans – whether they are cell snatchers or theater texters – is to introduce humanity into every communication media, including live, phone (audio), copy and art (visual), or even touch and smell (experiential). When advertisers in a highly digital world remember to consider humanity first, we can reach through technology and into the hearts of our potential customers.

Although this strategy works well for advertisers, it may not alleviate Patti LuPone’s problem; even so, if you have a teenager who just won’t give up the smartphone, Patti’s new show should be at the top of the list for your next family night.

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• Digital
• cell phone
• digital advertising