A chap's guide to chat-up lines
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.British Telecom will be targeting "Nineties man" in its new pounds 25m media blitz scheduled to break tomorrow.
Comedian Hugh Laurie, who has signed a pounds 500,000 one-year contract, replaces Bob Hoskins as BT's front man for the campaign.
During the series of four ads, BT's slogan will also undergo a subtle - and unwieldy, some think - change: "It's good to talk" becomes "It's good to talk and listen."
BT will spend another pounds 5m promoting and sending out a free booklet - in lime green - called "Talkworks" to customers to teach them better "listening skills". Around 900,000 have been requested so far, and the company hopes to send out more than 2 million in all.
The first Laurie ad will feature a man calling a woman with whom he has just shared a night of passion, and not knowing what to say.
"Far too little attention is paid to the way men communicate," said Adrian Hosford, BT's marketing director for the campaign. "When men do get on the phone it can be like verbal jousting rather than a collaborative effort."
Mr Hosford added that British men only spend an average of 10 minutes a day chatting on the phone, compared with more than 20 minutes a day for French and German men.
An important aim of the campaign is to get men to communicate more by phone, he said.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments