Commentary
AT&T Fires A Dud In New Ad
- by Mark Walsh @markfwal, November 19, 2009
AT&T finally responded in kind to Verizon Wireless's ad campaign comparing the two carriers' 3G coverage. Good thing. AT&T's own attack ad follows on the heels of a judge yesterday denying its request to force Verizon to pull the ads it alleges are false and misleading. Unfortunately for AT&T, its new ad won't do much to make people forget the red and blue coverage maps of the Verizon ads.
The 30-second spot features trustworthy-seeming actor Luke
Wilson standing in front of a board, going down a side-by-side checklist of advantages AT&T has over Verizon. They include AT&T's familiar claim to have the "fastest" 3G network, the network that lets
you "talk and surf at the same time", the most popular smartphones, and access to over 100,000 apps. The last two essentially mean, "We have the iPhone."
When Wilson comes to the last item on the checklist-Names that start with the letter V-Wilson chuckles, "Hey, they got one." Whoa, some knife-twist. The commercial has none of the zing or cleverness of Verizon's "There's a Map for That" ad, mocking Apple's iPhone ads, or its rivals more recent holiday-themed spots, especially the one placing the iPhone on the Island of Misfit Toys.
And AT&T should stop touting itself as the "fastest' 3G network -- it simply rings hollow in light of the admitted difficulties it's had handling data traffic from the iPhone. If comments in the tech blogosphere are any guide, people aren't buying the new ad. "AT&T ignores the Verizon commercial's claims of poor coverage and responds with 'We're Better,' read one comment on Engadget. "LAME...and I even like AT&T," read another on Phonescoop, in relation to the AT&T ad.
Mark Walsh can be reached at walsh@mediapost.com
all may be so until one sets foot in a GSM geography, i.e., the rest of the world
Heres the commercial they should have aired:
LUKE WILSON
SO your wondering if ATT has the best network?
ahh... your kidding right? DO we have weak spots? Yes.
are we the best?
Yes.
THE WHOLE TIME HE IS TALKING WE ARE WALKING THROUGH THE LIVES OF THOUSANDS OF IPHONE-HAPPY CUSTOMERS AND AN INCREDIBLE DISPLAY OF APPS AND INFO FIRING AROUND THE 'NETWORK'
LUKE WILSON
"who puts the smiles on their customers faces?"
"Theres a map for that."
LUKE PULLS OUT A CRUMPLED PAPER OUT OF HIS POCKET AND SMOOTHS IT OUT. IT CLEARLY SHOWS THE WORLD. ATT IN BLUE. VERIZON AREA IN red. THERE ARE ONLY TWO DOTS OF red and the rest of the world is covered with ATT blue.
LUKE WILSON
Oh those are my parents. they are just happy people in general but they say they love Verizon.. so thats awesome... this map may not be accurate... there may be more areas with happy verizon customers... and its hard to say if they are just like my parents and just kinda happy in general. so really this whole map thing is kinda of pointless.. if you are happy that is... if you arent.. well then maybe maps will help you locate your happyness... that could be useful and informative. You know... help you CHOOSE wisely.
LUKE IS COMICALLY OVER_ACTING AND POINTING AT WHICH COMPANY LOGO TO CHOOSE ON HIS "MAP"
Actually the last *three* are about the iPhone. The dual action of surfing and talking or texting and talking (or conference calling and texting) are what the iPhone has so slickly enabled, and is actually another huge problem, overwhelming AT&T's spotty network.