Sprite: The coolest pop ever.... ever

There is a new trend in promotions, and just about everything else, that I don't understand. It's Twitter yes, but that's not the conversation for today. I don't understand all the texting going on.

Yes, I understand texting is a great way to communicate quickly when a phone call is not appropriate, it's a non-confrontational way to say "no" to someone, and it's a good way to get in an accident on the freeway, but what I don't understand is all the texting in promotions. The radio station that I listen to wants me to text the word "music" to them and if I am the 500th text, I can win concert tickets. Post midnight commercials want me to text the word "babe" to some 5 digit number and I will get some sexy babe pictures on my phone, and Sprite wants me to text the code underneath the cap to redeem a prize.

Concert tickets and sexy babe pictures didn't get me to text, but when I heard Sprite prizes, I guess it was too much to handle. I caved and sent the following text to 77483, "4W49 RAW7 KBBM."

I got a text back that reads, "Sprite UTC: Hey! We need ur bday 2 get started. Reply STOP 2 end, HELP 4 info. Othr chrgs may aply."

O....M.....G Sprite, U R like da bom....U R the culest pop co eva. I cant blve how cul u'r abbrevs R. U R so ttly w/ it. & whn I say IT, I meen evrytang. Im imprsd dat sumthin U cld hv just speld out, U tuk da time to mayk luk all texty.

Needless to say, I didn't reply with my birth date. Initially I thought they were asking for my E-bay account and thought they might have had some cross promotion with e-bay, but no, it was bday.
I recently watched a movie from the early 90s about a surfer kid from California that goes to Ohio (or something like that) to live with his aunt and uncle for a summer. He uses phrases like, "Chill out man," and words like, "bro (pronounced bra)." The movie didn't age well because you watch it now and everyone sounds ridiculous (they probably sounded pretty stupid in the early 90's too, but there was a large part of the culture that bought into that crap). I hope that texting language ends up the same way. Seeing their attempt at linguistic mutuality with their customer seems so forced and desperate.
So, here's to you Sprite: Linguistic masterminds and da culest pop co eva.