Credit: Sprint
Can you hear him now?
Paul Marcarelli, the actor who gained fame in commercials as Verizon’s network test technician, is back on the job, only this time he’s not working for Big Red.
Sprint on Sunday evening unleashed a new advertising campaign targeting Verizon customers that features Macarelli touting the carrier’s improved network reliability and lower costs.
“I’m with Sprint now because guess what? It’s 2016 and every network is great,” Macarelli says in the ad spot. “In fact, Sprint’s reliability is now within one percent of Verizon and Sprint saves you 50 percent on those Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile rates. So I switched to Sprint, and millions more have, too. Can you hear that?”
According to a previous press release, Sprint’s “one percent” claim is based on Sprint’s analysis of Nielsen drive test data for average network voice and data reliability in 106 of the top U.S. markets.
Before making the jump to Sprint, Macarelli spent nine years as Verizon’s pitchman, starting the gig in 2002 and appearing in 20 to 40 commercials each year. Macarelli also appeared at several live events on the carrier’s behalf, including the Buffalo Bills’ 2002 season opener.
Macarelli’s campaigned with Verizon ended in 2011.
As the former face of Verizon, Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure said Macarelli is the perfect pitchman to convince consumers to switch.
“We’ve made tremendous advancements in our network during the past year and Sprint’s network reliability is now within one percent difference of Verizon,” Claure said. “We don’t expect our customers would even notice such an insignificant difference. So Verizon customers can switch to Sprint, experience network reliability on par with Verizon and save money on their wireless service each month. Using Paul in our advertising demonstrates loud and clear that it’s a new day in wireless.”
