In 1993, the telecom giant AT&T launched an advertising campaign that somehow predicted quite a few aspects of how we work and live today. The ad series “You Will”, directed by the now famous thriller master David Fincher, was an eerily accurate look at what life in the mid to late 2000s would look like. The ads, told by fhv Magnum PI star and professional mustache owner Tom Selleck imagined a series of scenarios involving gadgets and technology that did not yet exist.
“Have you ever done * insert things we all do now *? Well, you will!” Selleck would say at the beginning of each ad. “And the company that will bring it to you? AT&T,” he added at the end of each ad. The campaign predicted a series of technological advances that would define the coming decades as tablets, smart TV, remote work, smart watches, and smart devices for the home.
However, the central prediction of the ad was incorrect. Som Vox noted A few years ago, while these ads were “remarkably accurate in predicting the cutting-edge technologies” that would soon arrive, they ultimately missed the fact that the company that was to “bring it to you” was not AT&T. Instead, it would be a whole bunch of startups that did not exist at the time, the publication noted.
That said, it’s creepy to run all the stuff down that “You Will” got right about the future.