Post Super Bowl second thoughts...

...And this example is all about mixing your messages (or being caught while trying to obscure something.)

Aesthetically, I really liked the DirecTv ad with the kid who ages as he walks from room to room. The seams were well-masked, using a combination of new technology and old techniques (see Hitchcock's "The Rope.")

The payoff at the end, which admittedly was not as memorable as the meat of the ad, was a pitch for DirecTv's new Hi-Def initiatives. The tagline was "Rethink TV."

That's all well and good -- until my DirecTv bill showed up in the mail. Along with the notice that our service package price was going up in March.

Maybe -- just maybe -- the middle of an across-the-board rate increase is *NOT* the time to encourage customers to "rethink TV."

Rule of thumb: make sure your key messages aren't internally inconsistent with your actions. Or as Confucious put it, "words and deeds must be in harmony."