Walking
After Midnight: Teenage Love and the Internet Age
It’s 1997 and an adorable young couple is
returning from a date. He’s dropping her off at home and a light is on in the
house, clearly anticipating her arrival. The couple forgoes a kiss, since Dad
is totally spying on them from
inside. They are simply giddy: this is the kind of love that can only exist
when you’re sixteen. She runs into the house and up the stairs, saying
goodnight to her dad on the way to her bedroom, catching him watching out for
her. Dad’s light goes off and a small light turns on in her window: she has
turned on her computer. Patsy Cline’s “Walking After Midnight” begins to play
in the background as she logs on to AT&T World Net Service. An instant
message is sent to the boyfriend saying, “I miss you sooooooooo much.” He gets
home and instantly runs to his computer. There’s a message from her! You can
feel the excitement and anticipation in the air. “When can I see you again?” he
asks. She is brushing her teeth and RUNS to the computer when she hears the
ding announcing an incoming message. She takes a Poloroid picture of herself,
scans it, and it arrives on his computer. He searches for pictures of angels
and finds one, then cuts and pastes the picture of her face onto the angel
body. She receives the photo-shopped picture of herself while painting her
toenails, as teenage girls are wont to do, and completely looses herself into a
fit of giggles
This commercial for AT&T Worldnet
Internet Service is designed to pull at the heartstrings of the collective
youth of 1997. It was effective without being too deceptive, and mostly just
painted a picture of what was possible with this budding technology.
1997 was a year on the precipice of the
internet completely dominating every aspect of people’s lives. Instant
messaging through “buddy lists” had only been released to the public that year
through AOL and many other internet providers were rushing to keep up with
AOL’s surge in popularity. Text messaging as a whole had only been available
since 1997 (Cooper and Tyson) and teenagers having personal cell phones was
very rare. The internet was opening avenues of freedom that hadn’t been
explored yet, and the youngsters of this age were the first generation to grow
up around this astounding technology. This ad appealed to younger people and
their desires to connect with each other, avoid their parent’s watchful eyes,
and embrace the internet age.
This ad in particular has always
resonated with me. I remember, at age 13, seeing this commercial on prime time
television. The first thing I noticed was that the adorable, earnest girl in
the ad was Larisa Oleynik, the star of a popular pre-teen show on Nickelodeon,
“The Secret World of Alex Mac”. I was just on the edge of childhood, about to
embark upon high school and, hopefully, dating. This commercial excited me. I
so badly wanted to be this girl, going out on dates and having a cute
boyfriend. I wanted him to send me sweet little notes and put my face on the body of an angel. It
appealed to me greatly, as I’m sure it appealed to all the other teenagers. We,
as teenagers, had the ability to sway our parents. We had the ability to talk
them into doing things and to get us the internet we wanted. This ad was to
teenagers what Toys ‘r’ Us ads were to children at Christmas time. We knew what
we wanted, and it wasn’t Legos. We wanted freedom, love, and the internet.
The use of Patsy Cline’s “Walking After
Midnight” was very charming and inspired thoughts of hand-holding and being
with your lover in the middle of the night, which is exactly what these
teenagers were able to do with the help of the internet. Despite the fact that
they both had to be in at curfew, they were able to hang out all night. The
ability to do the walking with a
keyboard and a mouse brought an amazing amount of freedom and allowed
this date to go on way past midnight. The use of this song provides structure
and continuity to the scene: It is because of the lyrics that you know it is
late. It also lends a memorability aspect to the commercial, as it is a song
that is very easy to get stuck in one’s head. I, for one, honestly think of
this commercial whenever I hear the song out of context. The use of “Walking
After Midnight” was clearly effective, as seventeen years have passed and I am
still reminded of it.
However, this commercial definitely
encouraged the stereotypes of what is attractive in the United States. Larisa
Olyenik was lovely, thin and blonde; I know many a man who had a crush on her
as a teen in the nineties. She was exactly what every guy wanted in a
girlfriend, and she came from a white, upper middle class family to boot. He
wasn’t too bad on the eyes, either. The boyfriend in the commercial was, again,
upper middle class and white. He had a cool car and a cool leather jacket. It
is obvious that these kids were popular in their high school and they
absolutely don’t represent a large demographic of American teenagers. They do,
however, represent what is most desired: looks, money, and love.
The beginnings of the internet age were fairly innocent for many teenagers is the mid-nineties. It was exciting and new, and provided a kind of freedom that had never existed before. This AT&T
commercial really drove home the possibilities and made many people yearn for what was being
offered here. This commercial showed the capabilities of a new technology that was soon to take over
the world.
Walking After Midnight Commercial
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