11 May 2007

If the mountain won't come to Motorola...

You may have seen a couple of bloggers have covered Edelman tech PR man Justin Westcott's trip to Mount Everest as part of an attempt to break the world record for the highest mobile 'phone call. Westcott's not going up the hill himself, of course. He's just going to basecamp...which is akin to standing on tiptoe at the top of a ladder in your loft. He's leaving the hard bit to Rod Baber, a proper climber (the "hard bit" being, I suspect, trying to dial with frozen fingers...)

I've just seen the first bit of press coverage related to the attempt - this on the BBC's website. No mention of Motorola yet though...they must be delighted...(OK, OK, to be fair, there is a link to Motorola's website on the sidebar).

Without wishing to demean the difficulty of climbing Mount Everest, I'm a little underwhelmed by it all. It's been done a few times now and just because this fella's taking a little mobile with him doesn't, in my eyes, make it any more impressive. Now, if he was planning on performing Chas 'n' Dave's "Rabbit" on a pub piano that he'd dragged up there...

I can completely see how the idea came up in a brainstorm, though...and I imagine we can soon expect the world's fastest land-based mobile 'phone call involving Richard Noble and the world's deepest from some poor diamond miner in South Africa.

I'd just be happy to get a decent signal in my front room.

16 comments:

Unknown said...

Tell you what, send us your mobile number and we'll have Rod serenade you Chas & Dave style from the summit - nice compromise? Oh, and we are relatively happy with the branding on the BBC pic for the moment ... early days, stay tuned.

figgis said...

>relatively happy<

Interesting turn of phrase...

figgis said...

Oh and TWL, in fairness - if you look on the right hand side, and click this link:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6517555.stm

You'll find a nice juicy mention of Moto in there.

....the world's leading.... said...

Tell you what Jac, I hadn't even noticed the branding. And now I've had a nother look and it just looks like your climber friend is wearing a Star Trek jumper.

But I'm very happy with the idea of Rod singing Chas 'n' Dave songs down the blower to me from the summit.

Anonymous said...

OOOh look out TWL - Jac's had another brainstorm and he's angry. Watch out for his creative story ideas - I heard rumours that he has come up with an EQUATION!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

TWL, can you expand your horizons re. the agencies you talk about? I want the 'juicy' from all the agencies, not just your Edlemans, Lewis's and H&Ks. Come on, in the interests of independence, get your claws into a few of the other world-leading tech agencies!

....the world's leading.... said...

Ummm, yes...OK. Though in our defence, we have done Q&As with Hotwire, Firefly and Next Fifteen...and regularly cover other agencies. But we're always looking for content on all agencies...it's just that the bigger ones get up to more, and we tend to hear about it.

Anonymous said...

People, get the hint. TWL is obviously linked in with the one biggies he never comments on... Weber?

(ready to be corrected....)

....the world's leading.... said...

TWL isn't linked to anyone...and anyway, we've done a fair bit on Weber. Don't you remember that barbecue story from ages ago?

Anonymous said...

This string reminds me of the infamous "dog ate my phone" story Text 100 "reported" to the Sun back in 1998 I believe, demonstrating you could get an Orange signal just about anywhere. And the indestructible nature of the Motorola Startac phone. I tried a quick google search to see if I could find the original story, and blow me down would ya believe it, it happened again! Six years later in India in 2004 . Did Text have an office in India in 2004? ... hmmm

Anonymous said...

Half right.

The 'mobile bone' story was for Orange, not Motorola.

The best bit being that the Text 100 PR that was used in the photoshoot (Rachel someone) forgot to take a startac (a very small phone) so used, instead, her own brick of a Nokia phone (the dog in question was a Great Dane but, even so, this was a big phone).

Better still, in the front page picture used, the phone screen displayed Text 100's switchboard number.

Unknown said...

Think how funny it might be if he can't get a signal after climbing all the way up there :-)

....the world's leading.... said...

Yeah, that would be brilliant...or even better, if he runs out of juice.

It's all very well being able to make a call from the top of Everest, but there aren't many places to plug in...

Anonymous said...

TWL, you must be linked to some agency or other in the sense that you work at one? Your insights are too good to not be! We're not taking a swipe at your impartiality though...

....the world's leading.... said...

Work at an agency? Me? No way.

I know a few people that do, though.

Anonymous said...

My mate called me from the summit of Everest last year, and he's calling me again at approximately 6am tomorrow morning (May 17) from the summit again. What's so new about this that it warrants a PR stunt?