Keep smashing up your iPhone and Galaxy, says this clever carrier
There it goes again.
You've likely been sleeping with your new iPhone 13 every night.
You've likely been smiling at it, stroking it, and talking to it.
You have to hope, however, that you never drop it in such a way that its screen breaks and you have to get it repaired.
With the 13, this isn't going to be a cheap affair.
Perhaps you'll be heartened, then, to discover a slightly different approach. This, from a carrier.
Yes, it's a French carrier, but please don't withdraw your ambassador just yet. You see, Bouygues Telecom understands that people drop their phones all the time. So much so that it encourages it. In public. In its advertising.
Its latest effort involves the story of a couple who seem so excited about each other and their life together that they keep on dropping their phones. Again and again.
They meet cute, one of them drops their phone. They go on road trips, one of them drops their phone. They're standing at the top of a tall staircase, one of them drops their phone.
Keen observers will soon notice that, in each of these cases, it's the man who drops his phone.
He can't even keep hold of it at his own wedding. Are you sure you made the right decision marrying this careless man, madam?
Once they're married, the wife manages to drop her phone with enthusiasm and regularity. Even their dog gets involves in a little phone damage.
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By this stage, you might wonder what this is all about.
Well, very keen observers may have noticed that this is always the same phone being dropped. For this couple enthusiastically embraces the idea of getting their phones repaired, instead of buying new ones every year or two.
Bouygues Telecom expresses its attitude rather neatly. "Our phones will never stop falling. Bouygues Telecom will help you repair them and make them last longer."
The company is offering what it calls "sustainable smartphone solutions" that emphasize repair, recycling, trade-ins and refurbishment.
It's a remarkable attitude toward saving (what's left of) the world and toward customer service.
Some carriers -- and, indeed, phone manufacturers -- embrace customer service more readily than others, as I recently discovered yet again.
One can imagine a particular sort of customer being very much attracted to Bouygues Telecom's attitude.
But then along comes the temptation of a brand new iPhone and humans are so very weak.