Was anyone else driven up the wall by AT&T's obnoxious Cingular ads that ran the last spring? The worst has got to be the "Giants" ad, which opens with "While the giants of the communications were busy dividing this technology from that, something was happening back on planet Earth" (as opposed to the good people at AT&T, who were busy deciding how to make their brand more pervasive). You can watch it at <link> Here's one of the earlier ones: <link> Their slogan at the end has to be the worst -- "Cingular is now the new AT&T." What does that mean? We didn't hear "Slate is now the Washington Post Company" when this magazine was bought by them. It just doesn't make any sense. And speaking of which, AT&T seems to have an interesting fetish with slurping up the logos of their acquisitions -- literally slurping. See <link> <link> and <link> The Bellsouth and SBC integration ads aren't as bad, but those closing graphics sure seem to push the message that the AT&T globe is where good brands go to die. Anyone agree?