AT&T, as you may know, is in a hotly contested media and legal war with Verizon. Most of this, I believe, stems from AT&T wanting to maintain complete control of Apple’s iPhone, despite the fact that AT&T’s national coverage makes Cricket look good.
That coverage being the premise of Verizon’s Christmas-time ads, which show Verizon and AT&T coverage maps side-by-side (see photo here at Engadget). The key, of course, is that it’s a “3G Coverage Map” and not a regular one; when you see what AT&T offers, you’ll cringe. In the interest of protecting their business, AT&T sought an injuction against Verizon’s ads and lost.
Their new response? To cobble together the laziest commercial of all-time, featuring Luke Wilson and magnets in a warehouse. I would imagine the corporate advertising meeting went something like …
PR Lackey 1: “Okay, what about a quick clip of a famous celebrity comparing why AT&T is better than Verizon?”
PR Lackey 2: “But, bro, Verizon is better in nearly every way. Is that a problem?”
PRL1: “Shit, you’re right. Um, what if we just make them really vague and unimportant qualities about the service?”
PRL2: “Fucking brilliant, bro. Now who’s our A-lister?”
PRL1: “Well, we only have $1,000 to work with because it’s such short notice.”
PRL2: “Bro, Luke Wilson’s hanging around outside asking for change … why don’t we just give him 500 bucks, a Mick D’s value meal, film this shit in your apartment and spend the rest on Jagerbombs.”
PRL1: “Hells yes.”
Or perhaps something funnier (and actually, the reality of the situation probably was much funnier. But either way, it led to the most mailed-in commercial of all-time:
{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
I like the fact the Verizon magnet doesn’t stick…hilarious!
AT&T’s converage is BS! Sure, I can get their signal in my area, but if I’m a customer of thier’s living here (eastern NM) they will drop me. I’m in the military and found out first hand when I got stationed here. Furthermore, I know many others who’s contract was cancelled, some of them left with their iPhone and no provider. At&t are down right liars and misleading in their new commercials. Moreover, have you noticed in their newer commercials when Wilson is throwing post cards on a map telling you where there’s coverage, the only cities he mentions have a population of over 100,000.
The new commercial is stupid where he’s throwing postcards on a map. All the cities he mentions are large cities everyone knows. They aren’t little podunk towns that have one stop sign or stop light. Try finding coverage with ATT in a little podunk town. Not happening. A few years ago when on the water in Dale Hollow my friend was on the boat in the middle of the water talking to his friends on his Verizon phone. His brother and myself had no service, and the only service we could get in the area was at the peaks of the hills/mountains and it was in and out at best. What an absolute joke.
Verzion is full of crap. Anyone I know who has it always has crappy service. I’ve been on AT&T for years and I have never had a problem. Obviously the douche who wrote this is either getting a check from verizon, OR even worse, is a fanboy for a cell phone company. Luke is actually pretty funny in all the commercials that AT&T put togehter whether you like the company or not. And Adam, sorry dude, but when I make trips snowboarding in the mountains I am the only one with service. No matter where I go I have better service 99% of the time. Either way, who gives a shit, at least neither of us have to deal with being on Sprint. They are the worst cell phone provider by far.
I live in Canada and have never even seen Verizon available anywhere, but I did at one time have an AT&T phone which I had to break the contract on because I only had service in the city parts of town, a lot of dead zones in the suburbs, which included where I lived. Not having a home phone, and being an independent contractor that was pretty important to me. AT&T insisted it was the phone and not the service and suggested I buy another phone, even though I just bought the last one from them and it didn’t work. Instead I just went to a new provider, got a new phone that works all the way through Canada, trust me I tested it on my travels (BC’s got some pretty big hills), and cost dramatically less. But what I’m really pissed at is Luke, way to sell out to the corporation man, now I regret watching Henry Poole Lives Here. Truth be told, it sucked anyway. Oh well, we still got Owen.
Okay, it’s a crappy commercial, but Verizon charged me more every month for an LG crap phone by 40+ bucks. I now have an iPhone that works great, it’s easy to use, and I get reception in all the main areas I go to! It’s not always fantastic, but the iPhone is awesome and costs me less money. Explain that, Verizon.
Sorry Vinnie, Verizon is not full of crap. These commercial are seriously ridiculous and remind of Dish TV commercials mocking the execs of cable companies trying to beat Dish. All these AT&T ads need are Luke saying that Verizon doesn’t offer 1,000,080p.
Ask any owner and they say the worst flaw of the iPhone is the service. Christ I get perfect reception in upper wisconsin, on lake superior, the middle of Tennessee in the mountains and every other place I’ve ever been to with Verizon. Even had EVDO on top of Vail when I was snowboarding
You sound like such a grovelling fan boy
i know hilarious commercials, irrelevant authority, unspecified comparacions, and that stupid red herring…. reading off post cards lol. for idiots, made by idiots
I’m no fanboy of Verizon and I’ve never had AT&T, but ever since getting a Verizon phone (upgrading from, brace yourself, Virgin Mobile) I’ve not had one issue. I live near NYC, but even when I was at my grandmother’s funeral in Bumblefuck, North Carolina I had great service. That was 40 minutes from Lincolnton, NC, where there was nothing but farms and hills. The fact that there was running water was a surprise, but complete service was just shocking. Not once on the entire drive down did I lose service. I just wish the BlackBerry network was that reliable.
I’ve heard a lot of complaints about AT&T.
I have Verizon, and I get a pretty good signal in small towns. But no signal in malls.
Poor Luke. This makes him look like a douche.
Ok this is not a matter of whether or not AT&T is reliable but how completely idiotic and uninformative these commercials are. For some reason it seems like nobody seems to notice that these prove absolutely nothing. At all. Instead of using real figures or statistics they hire a career B list actor to play with foam cubes and magnets to “illustrate” points that have no basis in actual fact, and the worse part is, people are buying into it. Since when does throwing postcards at a map actually have any bearing on phone service or anything at all for that matter? Literally not one commercial featuring Luke Wilson has presented any tangible facts proving AT&T a reliable company. In fact by using obvious deception and even filibustering they’ve proven to be an unreliable company. Its like me trying to prove that there is a god by simply shooting a commercial with Rob Shnieder holding an action figure looking at a globe. Oh and a guy sitting at a table recieiving a thousand simulated texts also proves nothing. Thought I should add that in because I just saw it for the first time as I’m typing this, and it only proves my point. You don’t have to be ignorant America. See through the bull shit.
Actually Marty – no one is buying into it. Here where I live in eastern NC, we have pretty good coverage for most carriers, but those I work with who have the iPhone concede they never get the service that Verizon provides.
But I agree too that AT&T seems to have created the laziest commercials ever. They simply address NOTHING in their commercials. When I see any of them now I laugh because they’re so off base and ridiculous. I use to have AT&T and now that I’ve been on Verizon (about 5 years now), I can go anywhere and not lose service. Even as one poster put it “Bumble*** NC”.
AT&T’s responses have simply been sad. With all their money, you’d think they could do better. Now Verizon’s ads…. HILARIOUS! No contest.
ATT commercials are stupid and offputting. In fact, they probably drive more biz to VZ than to ATT. I was all set to break contract and get the iPhone when ATT began plastering Lukes fat face everywhere. I’m so turned off by the commercials that I’m just going to stick with TmO until the iPhone comes along to VZ.
Luke: “If you’re like most people you probably have a few extra minutes at the end of each month. Verizon doesn’t let you keep them. ATT does.”
Useless, because if you have extra minutes EVERY month it probably means you need to downgrade your plan…not pile on additional minutes that you clearly dont use.
I personally had a lot more problems with dropped calls and overpricing with Verizon than I have with AT&T…and I live in a PO DUNK TOWN. I live on a farm at the bottom of the Smokey Mountains. I get coverage. I also travel a lot and have never lost service or had a call dropped. Furthermore, the iPhone is the best piece of technology that has come out in YEARS. I wouldn’t give it up for anything — especially inferior service like what I would receive from Verizon
AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! if I see another annoying AT&T Luke Wilson commercial, I’m switching to verizon wireless and screw my iphone and I never want to se another movie with Luke ever again! DUDE!!!!
My fiance had switched to AT&T from T-Mobile for the iPhone. Of course AT&T has better coverage than perpetually dropping T-Mo (anything is better than T-Mo), but the plan he got was crappy and cost a ton (limited nights and weekends). And let’s not get into issues with Apple products. He’s now with Verizon and he has a Droid, and he feels it’s superior to the iPhone, and the coverage is even better than AT&T. Between his situation and the fact that my mom switched to AT&T from Sprint and she regrets it (I have Sprint BTW), I would never touch AT&T.
BTW, I didn’t even recognize Luke Wilson in the commercials…my has he changed…