ICYMI: This is Verizon's answer to T-Mobile's hilarious 5G Super Bowl ads
As satisfying as it must have been for Tampa Bay Buccaneers fans to see Tom Brady and co. absolutely pummel the Kansas City Chiefs en route to the club's second-ever Super Bowl title, the underdogs' clear win last night probably means quite a few casual watchers didn't pay this year's "big game" a lot of attention after halftime.
Unfortunately for the NFL's "official telco sponsor", the third quarter of the Bucs vs Chiefs clash was when its big Super Bowl LV commercial aired on live TV. On the bright side, the 60-second ad was obviously also uploaded to Verizon's YouTube channel shortly after that, where we can all enjoy (and analyze) it now that the football season is over.
Much like arch-rival T-Mobile, the nation's largest wireless service provider enlisted the help of a couple of celebrities to capture everyone's attention. In an interesting twist, Big Red chose to make both Hollywood star Samuel L. Jackson and Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster animated, which is certainly a... bold way of using the millions of dollars undoubtedly spent on the two advertising partnerships.
The core message is pretty simple and straightforward, as Verizon aims to make your mobile gaming experience smoother than ever before with a blazing fast 5G Ultra Wideband signal. Granted, said network is not available in many places around the country yet, and to its credit, the carrier makes that (relatively) clear near the end of the commercial, when Samuel L. Jackson highlights said availability is restricted to "parts of many cities."
While unquestionably amusing (and fairly effective in getting Big Red's message across), the ad arguably falls short of outshining T-Mobile's own 5G network-hyping Super Bowl advertising efforts.
Of course, the "Un-carrier" had not one and not two but three different opportunities to shine both in the lead-up to and during the big game, and it was somewhat unfair to expect the voices of Samuel L. Jackson and JuJu Smith-Schuster to eclipse the real-life army of celebrities composed of Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski, Adam Levine, Gwen Stefani, Blake Shelton, and Anthony Anderson (not to mention Anthony Anderson's increasingly famous mama).
All that being said, it's definitely nice to see Verizon take itself a little less seriously than usual, showcasing one of the lighter and more entertaining 5G use cases rather than thanking first responders and suggesting its Ultra Wideband network will be a literal lifesaver.
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