Although maybe major corporations should steer clear
As I troll around in search various news items from this source or that, I often come across funny tidbits about the workings of Corporate America. This one came to me regarding Barrior Mobile, owned by Lagardere Active North American (LANA), a subsidiary of the same French parent company that owns my former employer Hachette Filipacchi Media.
LANA is another one of these companies that thinks it can make a killing in the area of original ring tones. Or as they call them ‘Bling Tones’. It seems that someone there feels it’s OK to offer whatever tones they please so long as it turns a sale.
Now I am someone who believes 100% in freedom of expression and despise rampant, blind political correctness, but even the greediest of executive should have seen the potential problem of this tone of intolerance. Releasing this tone so close to the emigration debate is just plain bad timing, no matter how funny it may be.
And it goes a li’l something like this:
“This is la Migra! (slang for Border Patrol) Por favor, put the oranges down and step away from the cell phone. I repeat-o, put the oranges down and step away from the telephone-o. I’m deporting you back home-o!”
So far Cingular has pulled the tone from its offerings earlier this week. I’m sure others will follow. This could cause problems for LANA as they try to build their ‘Bling Tone’ market. It’s best to leave this sort of thing to Howard Stern.
