I really hate to be mean to people who believe they are trying to do good in the world, however misguided their notions are. But I can’t help myself this time…a coalition of consumer groups formed to oppose the AT&T-SBC-BellSouth merger(s) has launched a new web site called MergerMonster.com.
It’s not that the coalition has misguided notions — there are legitimate debates to be had on consolidation in the telecom world — it’s that this group has a loopy (or totally brilliant, you decide) approach to advocacy. Here are the first two paragraphs of the press release announcing the launch of the site.
After 20 years, the Merger Monster is back! Like a bad horror sequel, the bulky beast that we all thought was dead and buried has risen and is preparing to terrorize consumers with poor customer service, inflated prices, job cuts, digital discrimination, and privacy invasion.
The Monster, delirious with power, did not count on a courageous coalition prepared with the facts and ready to stand up to its unquenchable thirst for even greater market share. Now the Merger Monster has met its match in the Competition Coalition, an organization that joins a chorus of voices opposed to this latest monopoly merger — consumer groups, community organizations, competitive carriers, public interest groups and others – all terrified of what it would mean if the Merger Monster were allowed to swallow everything in its path.
Wow! The Monster (the uninitiated reader might reasonably be confused as to which monster is freaking people out, where he is and why he’s doing it) has arisen and is terrorizing people with only a group of brave villagers to stop it. Is this for real?
The actual web site itself, however, is even more entertaining. I don’t mean the content so much as the graphics. At the top of the page is an AT&T logo that functions like a Pac-Man, gobbling up companies…and people too! Which people? Why, Teddy Roosevelt, Senator John Sherman of Ohio (author of the Sherman Antitrust Act) and…Ronald Reagan!
How’d he get in there? Well, maybe it’s because the divestiture of AT&T took place in 1982, on Reagan’s watch. But really, that litigation had been going on for years and years before Reagan took his first oath.
Meanwhile, an animated octupus, again with the AT&T logo, brandishes fang-like teeth and red eyes at the top of the page as an airplane carrying the banner “competition” crashes into a cityscape. Subtle this site ain’t. And maybe that’s its political genius — you’ve got to see it to believe it.
Cynthia Brumfield at 11:45 AM|Comments(0)
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