TOW #17- How Could I Resist a Superbowl Commercial?

It is really quite a shame that there was no TOW due last weekend, after the abundance of interesting super bowl commercials.  Luckily, so many were such great hits that they are still being talked about in normal every day conversation.  One commercial that surprisingly got me to stop eating wings and chips with amazing buffalo chicken dip was the T-Mobile ad, starring Steve Harvey.  By using this ironic "host" and contrast with the recent Verizon commercial, T-Mobile is able to successfully show the flaws in their competitor's argument while also promoting their own business.  

The audience obviously had to be extremely broad in this commercial, as almost 50 million people were tuned into the Super bowl this year.  Any business is lucky to get air time, so this commercial had to be short, memorable, and powerful, so that its viewers did not forget about T-Mobile the moment the next commercial aired.  Their main purpose was, of course, to get people to join T-Mobile, but this commercial focused on providing a counter argument to Verizon's recent commercial when they use a visual representation of balls rolling down a ramp to show statistics for other phone companies.  

To set up the commercial as a counter argument, T-Mobile used the exact same format as Verizon, but focused on statistics that were in favor of their own company instead.  Steve Harvey pointed out that Verizon had used data from last year, saying that T-Mobile had more than doubled its coverage since that data report.  This not only makes Verizon look unreliable, but also makes T-Mobile look more trustworthy.  

Using Steve Harvey as the host of the commercial also helped T-Mobile add an extra element to their commercial that brought an ironic humor to it, contrasting to Verizon's more serious commercial.  Steve Harvey is currently best-known for his mishap with the Miss Universe Pagent, when he announced the incorrect winner.  In the commercial, he says that he won't even take responsibility for this mistake, because Verizon got it wrong this time.  

Congratulations T-Mobile for effectively using multiple layers of what makes a good commercial to make a great one.  This commercial stuck in the audience's mind, probably let them laugh a little, and most likely gained many new customers for the business.