AT&T

What would be scarier to a parent than sending off young children into the big city by themselves? AT&T's commercial plays off the fears of parents to sell their phones. "Hansel" and "Gretel" are the picture of rosy-cheeked, bright-eyed, childlike innocence. They're holding hands and skipping through the big city, leaving a trail of bread crumbs in their wake. However, the bread crumbs don't turn out to be such a foolproof plan, and the children are lost when the sun finally sets. Luckily, AT&T swoops in to save the day with the GPS feature on Gretel's cell phone.

The maternal or paternal instincts of the commercial's audience makes them want to protect the children. In the viewers' eyes, the children in the commercial could easy by substituted for any child  in his or her life. Although the commercial is cute and lighthearted, there is the dark undercurrent that leaves the viewer wondering, "what if this happened to someone I love?" This pitches the cell phone, not as a luxury for games and frivolous phone calls, but a necessity for an emergency situation.