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AT&T’s latest advertisement to tackle Verizon’s “There’s A Map For That” ads uses Luke Wilson, his twin and a decapitated doppelganger to make its point: AT&T’s 3G network is faster than Verizon’s.
As an ad, it’s certainly funny to watch Luke Wilson stumbling around, noggin-less. Guillotined by Verizon’s slower 3G service, Wilson’s body becomes a random engine of nerve endings chaotically firing, like a chicken with its head chopped off. The ad ends as Wilson’s headless body collapses to the floor, deftly cutting away just before his bowels loosen. The intact Wilsons then wander off for a snuggle.
The argument the ad is making, however, seems poorly thought out. AT&T certainly does have a faster network than Verizon… in fact, Verizon’s never contested that fact. What AT&T doesn’t have is anything even approaching Verizon’s coverage.
If you break this ad down to what it’s saying beyond the quirky charm, AT&T is making the following argument: if you are in an area with AT&T’s fastest 3G coverage, you can download a JPEG of Luke Wilson 20% faster than you can download it anywhere on Verizon’s network. That’s great, but most people would take reliability over a 20% boost in speed. AT&T would do better taking the money they are spending countering arguments Verizon has never made into their infrastructure, countering arguments Verizon has made.
