Ringtones: Playful or Passive Aggressive?
“Where you at - The Whole City Behind Us…” Boost Mobile Commercial, 2004.
Was at the airport last night, happily typing away, when I hear an alarm next to me. But not a routine “beep beep beep,” but more of an air horn “hide the artwork and the silver the Nazis are coming!” type of alarm.
Looking to my right, I see a guy pick up his iPhone, press a button to stop the alarm, put the phone to his ear, and say nonchalantly, “Hi honey.”
I realized that his personalized ring tone for his wife was an air-raid alarm, and I cracked up.
Not only because of how funny that actually is, but because I thought I was the only one who did that!
See, my girlfriend gets this when she calls.
If you can’t read music, the one line above is probably the most famous example of leitmotif in the world. Leitmotif means “a recurrent theme associated with characters or events in a drama.”
In other words, when my girlfriend calls, she gets The Imperial March from Star Wars.
Now, before I continue, you have to understand - This is no way is, or has been been meant as an insult. In fact, it was refreshing to meet someone else who also had the highest regard towards his girlfriend.
The Imperial March, or an air-raid siren, to me, is one of the highest heaps of praise imaginable.
Think about it - Darth Vader was, and still very much is, the ultimate bad ass! He’s got the power! He can kill you or cut off your airflow with his mind! This is Darth Vader! You don’t mess with Darth Vader!
An air-raid siren goes off? You snap your ass to full attention and focus, because if you don’t, you gonna die!!
And yes, I also did it because it’s damn funny as hell. To hear “da da da doo da da, doo, da daaaa… Hi honey!” naturally makes everyone around me laugh.
Well, everyone except her.
Which to me, kills me - because my logic has always been “hey, if I DIDN’T do it, and you were just a generic ring, it would mean I didn’t care!”
So I posted the question around and guess what? It ain’t only me.
I stopped and asked “alarm” man at the airport what the deal was. His name is Patrick McQuown, and he’s a professor at Georgetown University, as well as working for a wireless company called SinglePoint. He noted the “terrific irony” of it,” saying that “she got a laugh out of it, but was also kind of asking why.” When I pressed him, he noted, “well, what did she expect?”
Patrick has a point. No matter how much of a “man” we are, we’re programmed… When the woman we care for calls, we jump. So alarms, Darth Vader… It really all makes sense - and more importantly, is a sign of respect!
I got some more interesting comments, as well.
Barry Wegener, Senior Director over at Carlson Marketing in Minneapolis, told me that the ring tone for his wife is a wolf whistle, which “does attract attention when she calls.” He goes on in an email to say that “it really doesn’t go over well at church.”
One thing I did notice in the responses though, is that while men do it because it’s funny and they tend to see the humor in it, if a woman does it to your number, you should most likely keep your head down - you’ve got a situation on your hands.
Saretta Holler, the Marketing Communications Manager at Kettley, notes that her now ex-husband has the ring tone “Don’t Lie” by the Black-Eyed Peas. Hence the Ex, I suppose. She also mentions that a friend of hers uses “Wasted” by Carrie Underwood for her lesser half. Interesting.
Good thing for Saretta’s ex that there isn’t a song called “I’ve just sliced off your testicles.”
Erica Beutnagel, over at Text 100, tells me that just to drive her father crazy, she made his ringtone “This Old Man.”
I do like Kate Dowdle, though. Over at Kaplow PR, Kate writes, “The ringtone I use for my boyfriend is a Jimmy Fallon song, “your idiot boyfriend.”
When the phone rings it starts, “Hey I’m gon get ya gifts, and keep them for myself. and I’m gon screw it up, yea, cause I’m an idiot and I’m your boyfriend…”
It was just a joke but one day I left my phone at home when I went to the grocery store and he tried to call me. He was a definitely hurt; I don’t think things have been the same since. Maybe it’s because I still use it for his ringtone …”
Nice, Kate. “No, honey. I love you. I really do! Whether you’re the stupidest person I’ve ever dated is neither here nor there. By the way, you’re really not that great in bed. But I love you!”
We do it for clients, too. One woman I work with on a regular basis gets Tubular Bells, the theme from The Exorcist. Another one gets Dueling Banjos, the theme from Deliverance. It makes me happy, and gets me through the hell I know usually accompanies the phone call.
Perhaps the best answer came from Kevin Myers, at Reed College. It would seem that much like myself, Kevin is a misunderstood soul.
Kevin writes… “The ringtone I have set for my wife is a dog barking. As my wife loves dogs, has been active in dog agility, and is the main caretaker of our two big mutts (our 16-year old greyhound passed a few months back), I thought this was a natural. I found out I was wrong, however, when I misplaced my phone in our house over Christmas and used her phone to call and locate mine… I got an, “EXCUSE ME!” It’s been a long recovery…”
Perhaps the lesson here isn’t so much one in passive aggressiveness or psychology, but rather to just keep our phones on vibrate.
7 Responses to “Ringtones: Playful or Passive Aggressive?”
I can’t stop grinning like an idiot after reading this entry!
That made my day, and mostly cos, I too, personalize a ring tone for those I care deeply for. Some are not so funny if they were to hear them though. My generic ring for all others is Tom Connor’s “the good old hockey game”
I laughed out loud in my work area, where I work alone, however the 3 floors of office above me, can hear me type, sneeze and yes laugh out loud. Now that I have their attention, your blog will be passed along some more to those co-workers not already reading it.
p.s. I have tubular bells on cassette. lol LOVE IT!
you rule peter!!
The thing is, even though I’ve worked on marketing artists and pimped out ringtones, I’ve never heard one that didn’t make me roll my eyes or piss me off. Sitting in a meeting while Soulja Boy beeps from inside someone’s bag, or standing behind a person in line while the latest Britney diddy plays, makes me want to kill myself. PERIOD. My beau frequently obsesses over what to assign me. In his last exhausting discussion about it my response was, “How about a phone ring?” He looked at me puzzled. I walked over to the landline and picked up the receiver and made it chime. “Oh yeah” he said and smiled at my brilliance.
I’m also using the Imperial March for the ringtone for my wife. It always gives me a nice chuckle, and my co-workers seem to take great joy in telling me that my wife is calling when the ringtone starts. I also enjoy it when she calls when I’m walking down the hall at the office — kinda like my own theme music…
I am not trained to sight-read music, but I figured that one out immediately.
This is funny, Peter. My wife and I got identical phones a year ago. For some reason, I’m not able to make mine ring with anything custom, but I was able to set hers up.
She wanted the theme to the new Battlestar Galactica.
I have the coolest wife ever!
This is too funny, Peter. I do know how to read music and recognized the tune! I think I may need that ringtone for my mother!
Very funny Peter. I actually have been Video rintones since we at Paramount started clipping movies for this purpose. When my boss calls me the Video of Mel Gibson in Braveheart comes up. It’s the scene where Mel is riding on the horse and screaming “You can take our lives but will never take…OUR FREEEDOMMMMMM! FREEDOMMMMMMM!
Thanks for this. Made me laugh.
A friend of mne walked down the aisle to the Imperial March. Her soon to be in-laws didn’t care for her too much, so it worked and her soon to be husband loved it.