1990s AT&T Ads Predict the Future

Friday, 07 January 2011 | by Pat's Picks

The stories beginning to trickle out of the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas got me thinking about how much times have changed. Just four years ago, not a single iPhone existed. And remember back even further when a Discman (or a Walkman) were the only option for listening to music on the go. The rate of change over the past decade is almost unimaginable. Except, apparently, if you were one the folks who created a very prescient series of AT&T ads back in 1993.

Voiced by Tom Selleck, the You Will ads asked viewers to envision a future of impossibilities, like driving across country without having to stop for directions or sending a fax from the beach. Social SEO put a montage of the ads up on YouTube a few years back but I just ran across them this morning when I was reading the Chicago Sun-Times. What might be even more interesting than the ATT&T predictions that came come true are the innovations we are still waiting on, like a wallet-sized card with all of our medical information on it.