The mafia.

I hate Carrot Top. If the collect call business is booming, it won't be for long with him as their spokesperson. I will never use 1-800-COLLECT because of that annoying kinky haired freak.

http://www.attackworld.com/attackcarrot.asp

Apparently, the advertisments are so ineffective that I don't remember which stupid company Carrot Top is the spokesfreak for. My bad, guess he works for 1-800-CALL-ATT. Either way, he sucks.

I highly recommend the book The Rape of Ma Bell: The Criminal Wrecking of the Best Telephone System in the World
by Constantine Raymond Kraus, Alfred W. Duerig (Contributor)
to answer your question.

There are a variety of reasons - for one thing, collect calling is dirt cheap to provide and its profit margins are ridiculously high compared to regular long-distance or even calling cards, which tend to be more profitable than home-billing long distance. For another thing, the spokespeople work for peanuts and the ads are similarly bargain-basement. Check out the production values on 1-800-COLLECT ads (the ones with the angel who appears, to jog memories). Do you really think those cost much to produce?

For a third thing, the ad agencies that produce those ads are signed to produce a long string of cheap ads because this, in a Wal-Mart kind of way, is more profitable for them than producing one or two clever ads. So they make a fuck-ton of these ads. The collect call companies then feel like they have to use them since they have so many. It's kind of like ammo in an ammo-generous videogame. You end up shooting a lot of barrels just for the hell of it, because hey, the barrels are there, you've got a ton of bullets, why not? Seriously, this is a factor.

Fourth, and finally, it's a branding thing. Because one company puts an ad out, the other company has to do the same or its shareholders think it's not being competitive, and so they end up competing NOT for the ever-dwindling cash flow of collect calls but to keep their brand high-profile. AT&T has a distinct advantage by having its name in its number. 1-800-COLLECT, which is done by MCI if I remember correctly, has to advertise that much more aggressively so that they can build that number as a "brand" they own, and AT&T escalates, and MCI has to respond, and so on.

I hate Carrot Top as well. AT&T claims that it uses him and keeps using him because he tests well with the target demographic for collect calling: the teenagers (people who may need to call mom or dad for a ride when they don't have quarters for the phone, as mentioned in the piece itself). I think it's a load of malarky - the ads are insulting and grating and I cannot imagine a single teenager who thinks Carrot Top is cool. The recent habit of shoving a nameless female "love interest" into the ads is horrifying to me, because, really, does ANYONE need to see Carrot Top sexualized?

The answer to that is, fuck no.

Bahaha! How can I not laugh at this:

"really, does ANYONE need to see Carrot Top sexualized?

The answer to that is, fuck no."

To say I loathe Carrot Top doesn't begin to describe. I want to hurt his feelings. I want him to die.