OMG! Actual Humans to Answer Phones!

Hmm. Maybe it's like that scene in the Sylvester Stallone/Sandra Bullock movie Demolition Man where future cop answers the phone saying, "Hello, this is the Los Angeles police department. Press one for an automated attendant or stay on the line to speak to me" or something like that.

VCCP Berlin has produced a commercial for O2 which depicts all sorts of robots in retirement with a voiceover that, OMG, you can now talk to an actual live human being when you call the company.

Wow. How novel. How did we ever get to a place where insanely annoying phone trees became the norm?