“Air has no prejudice, it does not carry the opinions of a man faster than those of a woman.” Huh? Welcome to Verizon’s rebranding campaign.
Verizon is not very popular right now for teaming up with Google against net neutrality. That its new branding campaign, which also lobs off the “Wireless” from its company name, is themed “Rule the Air” does not help viewers forget that.But what better way to make consumers feel warm and fuzzy than to get a bunch of young women of different backgrounds to speak inspiringly about the lack of discrimination offered by… a cell phone service you pay for? We’d applaud them for their diversity, except that throwing in mentions of race (having a black woman say “white” and vice versa) and gender seems utterly superficial and arbitrary.
It doesn’t quite make us as angry as Alexia Tsotsis over at Techcrunch, but we see her point:
So you’re not prejudiced against our opinions, but you’re totally cool with discriminating against our wireless data packets?
Also, you’re selling cellphone coverage, not tampons. Guess what? I, and I’m assuming other women, care about “facts” like pricing plans, and signal strength and yes, whether or not you’ll have iPhone availability in January.
It’s true. I personally care about the fact that my iPhone might as well be a tampon for all the phone reception I get from it, and that I occasionally think about discarding it like a used one.
Hey Verizon, Whoever Made This Is Going To Hell [Techcrunch]