Pivotal Moments

I’ve been kind of scratching my head, as I have just read an interesting, albeit strange study issued by MRSI (Marketing Research Services Inc.) for Boost Mobile that notes “on their [14-to-24-year-olds] journey to adulthood many of them will experience a positive pivotal moment in their lives.”

I would hope that on such a journey, regardless of teen angst and post-college job hunting, something positive will happen to you. It’s almost inevitable, but I guess this would depend on your outlook on life. If you’re the type of person that views the glass half full, then perhaps you are among the many to have, in fact, experienced a pivotal moment. Congratulations.

According to the release, “Respondents, who were asked to rank the most common positive pivotal moments in their lives, indicated that receiving a phone call from a friend or family member informing them that they were coming to visit or move to their city topped the list of special occasions that changed their lives by 67 percent.”

Examples of phone calls that almost half of today’s youth have personally received involved social and dating events:

"Where Did You Meet Him/Her?" - An invitation to a party where they met their boyfriend/girlfriend (47 percent)

"I Know We Just Met, But ..." - Someone they just met asking them out on a date (46 percent)

"Will You Go to the Prom with Me?" - An invitation to a prom or dance (45 percent)

Boost Mobile’s “Boost Mobile Pivotal Moments” advertising campaign was designed to illustrate a “pivotal moment” when a phone call grants a “once-in-a-lifetime moment that takes young people to a higher level in life.”

Consequently, recording Artists Eve and Fat Joe have made fun of the ad campaign:

“Eve's commercial takes you back in the day when her friend "chirped" her to invite her to a block party. She pulls out her Boost Mobile phone and tells her she's on her way. There she sees a local MC in a heated rap battle. At this moment, she is inspired to become a rapper and the rest is history. The comedic twist in the commercial shows that had she not gotten the "chirp" and continued to dance, she would have placed second in a nationally televised talent show competition while in her teens and ultimately succumbing to a position as an assistant ballet instructor in eastern Ukraine before become the dean at a prestigious ballet academy in Russia.

”Fat Joe's commercial shows him standing on his neighborhood corner back in the day when he receives a "chirp" and one of his friends invites him to a rap performance. He goes and becomes obsessed with hip-hop from this moment on. Had he not gotten that pivotal "chirp" he would have continued to discover his hidden talent of communicating with animals and become a respected NYC pet psychiatrist. Without Boost, the world would never have known this lyrical legend.”

My life has been full of pivotal moments, none of which happened on the phone, unless you count the time when my fiancé-who-doesn’t-cook-but-heated-up-portobella-mushrooms-with-mayo-and-called-it-dinner called to tell me that he had just cooked a lavish meal of chicken basquaise and that I should hurry home before it got too cold. Come to think of it, this was certainly a pivotal moment. The man could cook, despite the fact that he denied it for so many years.

Men.

On that note, one little tidbit from the study:

"More females than males claim to have received a positive pivotal moment call; most notably for getting a job and having a close friend or family member visit or move to their city."