“We’re going to China!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

No, no you’re not. I’m going to need a marketing name for the support players, those brands in your life which you may not be aware of but which help the ones you do know. Like BASF, “We don’t make the (blank), we make the (blank) you use, better.” Or Intel’s push to let you know that they power everything in your PC life using hip geeks and that memorable, if not annoying chime slash cue. Cisco though, seems to be unable to do this in their advertising. The “Human Network” campaign currently running with Ellen Page is not only frustrating and annoying, but confounding as hell. I don’t get the tone of her performance at all: Is she angry at them, or some kind of hero to the students? And when one of them yells out about going to China. The HELL is that? That’s in addition to the main thing I’d wish they’d stop doing: Referring to people as a human network. It feels anything but, instead conjuring up android imagery or worse, trafficking.