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Steve Harvey reprises famous Miss Universe moment for T-Mobile

Technically Incorrect: T-Mobile decides that the presenter's mistake in naming Miss Colombia the winner is ripe for its advertising during the Super Bowl.

Chris Matyszczyk
2 min read

Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.


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Steve Harvey. Redemption?

T-Mobile screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET

Drake is not enough.

I hate to make that suggestion to those who believe he is, indeed, everything.

However, T-Mobile decided that despite featuring him in a Super Bowl ad that excited many, it simply needed more star power.

So during the second quarter in marched Steve Harvey. The "Family Feud" host and comedian has been famous lately for an alleged gaffe. He announced that Miss Colombia had won Miss Universe, when in fact it had been Miss Philippines.

Miss Colombia decided not to sue him for the obvious distress caused (she is not American.) War between the two countries must only have been averted after strenuous diplomatic efforts.

Harvey can now laugh about it. I know this because in T-Mobile's second Super Bowl ad, he laughs about it.

The motivation of the ad is Verizon's accusation -- in an ad that featured colored balls (video below) -- that T-Mobile, as the company's SVP of marketing Peter DeLuca told me: "basically covers no one." The truth, he said, is that T-Mobile now has 97 percent of Verizon's coverage.

So here's Harvey explaining Verizon's balls are just that. While, at the same time, marveling that he actually got something right. (We'll see how much he gets right when he mans the T-Mobile Twitter account during the game.)

DeLuca told me that the ad "pokes fun at the category."Indeed, the accusations thrown around by one carrier against another can be quite laughable.

I wondered, however, how much money T-Mobile is having to pay both Drake and Harvey.

"No more than last year," said DeLuca. Last year, the company employed entertainment mogul Kim Kardashian to peddle its wares. Perhaps she's a better negotiator than Drake and Harvey put together.

It wouldn't surprise me at all.