by: Jessica Sheridan Assoc. AIA LEED AP
Wes Anderson has directed a series of AT&T commercials that feature the busy lives of various professionals. As a fan of his work, I was excited that one of the commercials features an architect. The commercial moves frame by frame through the busy life of a partner of the fictional firm, “Lea Nakamura Architects.” Dressed in black with thick-framed glasses, she oversees everything from design development through construction. At first watch, I thought the commercial celebrates architects; it even makes a statement about gender equality by featuring a woman in power. The more I watch the ad, however, the worse she — and the profession — looks.
With each frame, disasters appear. Her design team is not living up to her standards; the architect-of-record confuses an elevator for a chimney; a cement order was cancelled on the job site; there are electrical problems. The architect deals with each situation in a blasé, not-my-problem kind of way. It seems as if everyone is scampering to get the job done, and meanwhile the architect is sitting on a stool with her cell phone brushing them all off. In the end, the project gets done (it’s a white, rectangular room), and the viewer is left questioning what the architect actually accomplished. Yes, she is aware of all the issues because she is able to communicate with everyone on her phone, but she hasn’t solved any of the problems.
This ad is uncalled for to say the least. When the ad should commend architects for handling the various sticky situations on job sites, and AT&T should sell the phone as a way to help architects handle disasters, it makes them look foolish instead. So much for progress.