Hey, remember back about 12 years ago, when Verizon’s big ad
campaign was all about showing hip-looking attractive young people out on Route
66-looking places making “V”-shaped peace signs at the camera with their hands?
Well, it’s a funny thing, but I think that T-Mobile girl is stealing that for
this new ad! So then maybe she’s a super villain after all: The Brand Identity Appropriator! She is an all-powerful
brand identity swiping machine, riding on a lightning-fast motorcycle, swiping
other companies’ previous brand identities! Watch out, Taco Bell: pretty soon
she’ll have a talking Chihuahua saying: “Yo quiero T-Mobile!” And then she’ll
be saying that T-Mobile is great for when you feel like a nut, and even when
you don’t! And then she will have a “T-Mobile Attack!” (<Or maybe that’s
when she attacks a brand and makes off with all their old corporate image stuff.)
The funny thing about this ad is, they’re supposedly
comparing a slow motorcycle, subbing in for AT&T, against our heroine’s
lightning-fast super-bike, representing T-Mobile. And so naturally she whizzes
past this AT&T stand-in guy, and it’s so fast, we can’t even see what
happened (!). But when they slow the action down, we see her flash the old
Verizon logo at the guy (!!). So, is this really secretly a guerilla marketing
campaign for Verizon, to remind us that the “V”-shaped hand-peace-sign thing is
their old brand identity, and then to make us think Verizon’s stuff is this
fast too? Well, it certainly made me
think of it, so if that’s what they’re trying to do here (give Verizon free
advertising in the middle of a T-Mobile commercial, that is), then they
totally nailed it! Great job! (And my lips
are sealed about the hidden message! Of course, I do have an itchy typing
finger, though, so sorry about that…)
Here’s the commercial with the secret message in the middle:
And here’s an old Verizon Wireless ad with the “V”
peace-sign hand-signal (It’s toward the end):
I’m sorry, but I can’t find the ads I’m thinking of, but I
wish I could show you, because those old Verizon Wireless ads made it seem so hip and cool to have a cell phone from them (although most of you will remember them well, I’ll bet).
