• T-Mobile Rips-Off An Apple Ad To Rip The iPhone… For Being On AT&T's Network

    Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010

    MG Siegler is a general partner at CrunchFund and a columnist for TechCrunch, where he has been writing since 2009. His focus is on Apple. Prior to TechCrunch, MG covered various technology beats for VentureBeat. Originally from Ohio, MG attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI. He’s previously lived in Los Angeles where he worked in Hollywood and in... → Learn More

    Well this is interesting. And smart.

    Obviously, commercials that call-out rivals are nothing new. But a new commercial from T-Mobile that the company put on YouTube yesterday does it in an unconventional way.

    Specifically, the commercial is for T-Mobile’s new myTouch 4G device. It’s an Android device that is an iPhone competitor. But rather than rip the iPhone directly, they instead rip the fact that the iPhone 4 is only available on AT&T’s sub-par network. And they do so by making a parody of Apple’s famous “I’m A Mac” commercials.

    “Who’s your friend?,” the female myTouch 4G asks. “Oh, it’s the old AT&T network,” the iPhone 4 man replies. The iPhone 4 man is sharply dressed young guy — who happens to have an overweight, bald, lame businessman on his back. He sort of seems like he’s drunk too. Yeah, that would be AT&T.

    In other words, T-Mobile is conceding that the iPhone 4 is an attractive device that is sexy to a lot of users. But they’re saying that you shouldn’t buy one because it comes handcuffed to a crappy network.

    Of course, it’s looking like this ad will only be applicable for another few weeks. But, we’re now in the all-important holiday buying season. So the ad is a very smart play, even short term.

    Or, to think of it another way, “T-Mobile is practically begging to carry the iPhone,” Daring Fireball’s John Gruber writes.

    Company: T-Mobile
    Website: t-mobile.com
    IPO: DT

    T-Mobile is a mobile telephone operator headquartered in Bonn, Germany. It is a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom. T-Mobile has 101 million subscribers making it the worlds sixth largest mobile phone service provider globally.

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    Product: iPhone 4
    Company Apple

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