A very smart ad idea by WhatsApp – tapping into a common texting frustration,  green bubble vs blue bubble. The conversation about Apple texting with Android users became a meme and even made it into The New York Times. A green message bubble will appear if the text was automatically sent using MMS/SMS instead of iMessage and some features will have been disabled.

WhatsApp has also added to its ad the attraction of the cast of Modern Family. The commercial appears to be a new episode of the series that ran for eleven series from 2009 to 2020, featuring actors, Ty Burrell, Julie Bowen, Eric Stonestreet and Jesse Tyler Ferguson in their old roles as Phil Dunphy, Claire Dunphy, Cameron Tucker and Mitchell Pritchett.

It is built on a recent WhatsApp survey which reported that 58% of Americans consider themselves “blue bubble” people, with 52% saying they have a close friend or family member they don’t speak to as regularly because of device differences. It concludes with the solution (by a house painter) that they should communicate via WhatsApp so they can all access the same features.

Sadly, the commercial’s tagline isn’t the most inspiring, “Don’t make this family’s mistake – switch to WhatsApp for seamless and private messaging across all phones.”