Hell, this goes beyond just phone support. Its pathetic that only NINE companies would achieve an A grade, but not entirely surprising given the prevailing attitude of "profits before people."

I've always thought this was interesting. When The Incredibles came out a couple years ago, it was a big hit and a friend of mine told me about a study that somebody, maybe associated with Pixar, conducted. Because there were several movies, like the Final Fantasy stuff and Simone w/Al Pacino, featuring technology that made CG characters look VERY close to human, there was the question of how audiences felt about that. Turns out, people love the stylized humans from The Incredibles but get really turned off by the almost-human creations. Find 'em creepy.

And they are. Creepy in the same way that Bank of America's customer service line is where you attempt to "speak normally" to a robotic voice, who invariably responds "I'm sorry, I didn't catch that. Did you mean 'make a payment?'"

But in order for this endeavor to make progress, at some point there will have to be quantifiable justification for "being human." As in, will this make more money for the company? From the vantage of having integrity and not selling out, my agency and I insist on doing respectful, human work--and a lot of clients go for it. Then again, there are plenty who don't and won't. It's a good fight to fight though and I certainly don't plan on giving up.

Brad,

First, let me say thanks for showing up and posting thoughtful comments all the time. It is very much appreciated.

Second, I think your CG characters analogy is spot on. And I think the quantification of the value of being human is only available currently through such analogies. Although I do think there is a synthesis of theoretics from economics, sociology, psychology, and semiology (and perhaps other disciplines) that suggests a framework for whatever might be able to eventually explain such large-scale social phenomena. In fact, "integral marketing" is an attempt to describe the way such a framework might intersect with marketing.