Dentyne: Make Face Time

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If you were curious, the song used in all of the spots is called "Summer Day" by Coconut Records.

Dentyne has released this campaign that demands you "Make Face Time" by getting off the computer, turning off the cell phone, and going out to meet with people face-to-face. And with the minty help of Dentyne, maybe even you can score a make-out session!

When surveyed by Dentyne gum, 9 out of 10 Canadians prefferred face-to-face communication over any other form, and 6 out of 10 felt that technology was actually getting in the way of friends and family. While these statistics may be inflated (I'm not sure of the accuracy or randomness of the sample or how the survey was conducted) they are something to consider with the rapid growth of the internet, cell phones, and other new media. Have these innovations caused us to forget about what they were made for in the first place - to better communicate with the people around us?

Right now, I could send a message to somebody in Hong Kong, and they would receive it in seconds. It's a marvel of human acheivement that should not go unnoticed, but I could also do the same for somebody sitting in a room two doors down -- somebody who is easily accessible and who is only a few short steps away -- but should I? This is the ethical question that Dentyne is answering with their campaign. Yeah, you can walk over and talk to them, but laziness and efficiency have led many to choose the simpler option.

We're running head on into a region of human society that has never been encountered before, so naturally there will be problems adapting to the rapid information exchange of the modern day. As of now, our digital world cannot provide most of the things exhibited in the "Make Face Time" commercials, such as intimate human emotion and group interaction on a personal level. These kinds of missing qualities are the attributes that gives new media a bad reputation for being antisocial tools. Hopefully one day our computers and phones and next-new-things will incorporate those human features.

Dentyne is so serious about their intentions to ween you off of your technological addictions that they have a 3 minute timer on their website that will actually stop you from browsing the page and will tell you to "go browse the worldwide something else". Unless of course you're watching the TV ads, then it pauses for you. I guess social interaction still isn't as important as the bottom line.