My Dad says "People who like Sex in the City and Text Messages must be stupid"

I am lucky because I have a great relationship with my Dad. He is almost 70 and I find his perspective on tech stuff refreshing since he doesn't use anything except a cell phone and tends to give you a real unfiltered opinion on things.

This brings me to a conversation we had the other day when my dad asked me to explain text messages to him.....so I did and he then asked if it was only for stupid people. Not really understanding what he meant I asked him to elaborate and here is what I got.

"I went to see Forgetting Sarah Marshall the other day and before the picture started (yes my Dad calls them pictures) there was a commercial for the Sex in the City movie and they said after the commercial you could answer a question by texting your answer to win a prize. The question was multiple choice and after they gave you your three choices they then told you what was the correct answer so no one would get it wrong"

This left my Dad with the impression that texting was complicated and you had to be pretty sharp to do it.

This got me thinking ....and pardon me if I channel Carrie Bradshaw for a moment...

Does making a contest so idiot proof make it too obvious that you are just trying to grab people's contact info for future use and does offering a small prize make it all OK?

I say yes...and no.

I love creative marketing and the way this was explained to me I have to say the concept of saying "Watch this tailer real close because there is a test later" before it ran is a clever way to get people to take note but if you follow that with a "Oh by the way we didn't think you would actually pay attention so here is the answer" sends a weird message that is almost (if not fully) insulting and when you insult people, someone like my Dad will pass on to others.

Because my Dad....he is a talker....and he now knows how to text people.