AT&T, the one sour note in iPhone’s symphony, has been running a new brand campaign called Rethink Possible for about month now (via agency BBDO). Of course, this is much bigger than AT&T Mobile. This is about AT&T revamping their overall image across the spectrum of things they do: mobile, phone, Internet and TV.

When I look at marketing from companies like AT&T, I have two questions. Is it creative? And will it do them any good?

My cheery weekend spirit requires me to start with the positive: Damn, I love this campaign launch commercial. We see dozens of new animation techniques every year, but this one is so beautifully simple and mesmerizing, I never get tired of it — which is fortunate, because I seem to see it everywhere.

I’ve honestly never liked the Pure Imagination song from Willie Wonka, as I’ve seen it used before and it’s always felt corny and lame. Here it feels like genius. Layering such an innocent song over this combination of live action and animation works really well. And then the one line of copy at the end of the spot is near perfect. (I can only say “near” because I was trained long ago that perfection, like the speed of light, is unattainable.)

Go to the AT&T Rethink Possible website and you’re greeted by animated text, again well written. There you can view the other commercials in this campaign, which, especially when viewed in sequence, start feeling like typical, slick, big-agency BBDO-style commercials. Unlike the launch spot, the humanity in these spots is more expected and sappier.

Happily, with this campaign AT&T seems to be putting the bad memory of Luke Wilson and all that juvenile back-and-forth with Verizon out to pasture. Kudos for that.

It’s when you start thinking about the reality of AT&T’s situation that things get significantly less happy. What about this strategy? How believable is it to cast AT&T as the company that can really “rethink possible”?

AT&T certainly has the right to revamp its image. You can’t expect them to tie themselves to a post and accept 40 lashes. (Well, maybe it wouldn’t hurt to ask.) But I don’t imagine a lot of viewers will be leaping from their chairs eager to follow AT&T down the golden path. The company is held responsible for a a great many telco evils, iPhone’s network performance being only one.

If AT&T sees itself as the innovation leader, most will see that for what it is: pure imagination. Having read their entire site, I don’t see a single thing I’m not already getting from Verizon.

Basically, AT&T is a monolith doing what monoliths do. They’re trying to convince us they’re innovative by telling us they’re innovative — when they should instead be demonstrating it with fresh ideas and products.

This campaign changes nothing. Rethink possible is a great employee motivation campaign and T-shirt. To the outside world, it’s just a lot of fluff. But I have to admit — in the launch commercial, it’s truly first-class fluff.