Laughter and Christmas go together II

• More than half of people laugh every day
• Our friends and killing jokes make us laugh most often
• The most cheerful operator is T-Mobile

Prague, 14 December 2009 - Czechs are generally thought to be chronic complainers. Yet statistics prove that we are not so bad, as revealed by a T-Mobile survey conducted by the g82 agency with the aim of getting answers to questions about joy and laughter, namely in connection with the upcoming Christmas holiday. In our last press release, we talked about the "image" of Czech Christmas, today we will focus on laughter and its role in our lives.

Laughter

One thing is clear: laughter is an essential part of Christmas! At least this is what 98% of respondents believe. The majority of us can remember several entertaining stories related to the holiday, such as forgetting presents in various "secret" caches, untraditional "arrivals" of Baby Jesus or the stunts of our pets. Still, some of the stories are quite original:

"I gave mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to a carp, but unfortunately it didn't survive."

"I lost my carp and never found it again."

In general, we can say that we laugh quite often, half of us at least once a day. This is shown by the fact that 69% of respondents said they laughed heartily either today or yesterday. And this is good, since we all agree that cheerful people tend to suffer less from stress and in general are healthier.

But if you don't want to give yourself away, do not laugh. 94% of respondents said they can recognize their loved ones by laughter.

We are great fun and love killing jokes

Most often it is our friends (68%) that make us laugh, as cited by T-Mobile customers and young people (15-29 years); but also a good joke (55%) or our own or someone else's children make us laugh. Czechs prefer coarse humour when jokes are concerned. The most popular are killing jokes (20%) and dark jokes (18%). It is interesting that blonde jokes are preferred by 11% of women but only 6% of men. It is also important to know whether we can enjoy the company of other people by not only listening to their jokes - half of us consider ourselves to be fairly good entertainers and almost everyone claims to be able to make fun of himself/herself.

Merry mobile Christmas

Even though the majority of us are content with our mobile phones (84%), a full 45% would like to get a new handset for Christmas. At the same time, 84% of people would be happy if their mobile operator gave them a chance to win one in a Christmas contest. The perception that there are never enough mobile phones applies to both groups, i.e. to those who are happy with their mobile phones and to those who are not.

More than one-third of us (38%) pay attention to the Christmas offers of mobile operators and more than half (55%) like mobile operators' Christmas advertisements. The current campaigns have made one-fourth of respondents laugh, most often the T-Mobile spot (cited by 50% of those who laughed at some of the advertisements).

More than half of the respondents agree that the word "joy" now suits some of the mobile operators. A full 43% of respondents associate joy with T-Mobile (VF 33%; T02 24%). It is apparent that people tend to view their respective operators in a positive light.

About the survey

The quantitative survey was prepared in November 2009 by the g82 agency. The agency conducted managed computer interviews in households with a total of 397 residential users of mobile phones and Czech mobile operators aged 16-59. Data was weighted by the overall market penetration of mobile operators. The survey was divided into three parts - Christmas: how people look forward to the holiday, what makes them happy and brings a smile to their faces; Laughter: how often people laugh and what makes them laugh; Telephone and advertising: monitoring of operators' Christmas offers, and which operator can be associated with the word "joy".

T-Mobile Czech Republic, a member of the international telecommunications group Deutsche Telekom, has almost 6.2 million customers, the number-one operator in the Czech market. T-Mobile is an integrated operator: in addition to telecommunications services, it offers comprehensive ICT solutions not only for companies, but also for other organizations and individuals. It provides outstanding services in the high-speed network, which was proved repeatedly by benchmark testing performed by umlaut (former P3) with Best-in-Test seal.

T-Mobile Czech Republic places emphasis on taking a responsible approach to the environment and society. It adheres to fair business practices, helps beneficial applications and services to see the light of day, supports non-profit organizations, small businesses and individuals, and lends a helping hand whenever crisis situations arise. The company’s employees serve as volunteers in many places across the entire Czech Republic.

More information about the company is available at www.t-mobile.cz, www.t-press.cz (the portal for journalists) and www.t-mobile.cz/pomahame (information on the company’s CSR activities).

Contact details of the press unit: press@t-press.cz.