Abstract:

Hewlett-Packard’s award-winning advertising campaign shows a car breaking down and an onboard computer automatically rescheduling flights, updating hotel bookings, calling home, calling a breakdown truck and a relief hire-car- all in one transaction. Another advertising feature describes a "a thirsty Finn” who “points his mobile phone at the drinks dispenser and a bottle of the real thing drops out just as its price pops up on his phone bill. Meanwhile Swedish car drivers, understandably unwilling to wind down the window on a freezing day, use their phones to instruct the car wash about which program they want. The charge then appears among their monthly phone call".