Remember that well presented chap with smart dress sense and a decent haircut who appeared to be making all the right noises until his phone went off and it was Crazy Frog’s version of the William Tell overture? Instant relegation to the comedy-tie office-joker scrapheap.
The rule of thumb on tone selection is to keep it as discrete and low key as possible. Go through your alert options (but please, not in public) and consider if you can cope with it repeated many times. Can other people? Can you relate the tune to you and your position in life? Sambas and bossanovas might be amusing, but you won’t welcome a chirpy interruption when airport security officials are examining the contents of your washbag at Heathrow.
The general rule must be that a clever-dick selection seldom impresses. There are a couple of exceptions but these are rarities. I recently met a man who had employed the steadily building theme from the film Halloween. I thought this functioned well, as the original was electronic, simple and very evocative.
Of course you can go too far the other way. You may think you are playing it safe by selecting the manufacturer’s jingle, but you could also be publicly announcing to having had a taste bypass or a corporate-sponsored lobotomy. If in doubt, switch the thing to vibrate, especially if you expect a flurry of calls from your mum.
Ringtones to be avoided
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1 Mexican Hat Dance
2 Kylie Minogue’s I Should Be So Lucky
3 Nokia ringtone (no, Dom Joly didn’t make it amusing and acceptable)