Sprint says Verizon customers aren't very smart
Commentary: In a new ad, the carrier claims that staying with Verizon shows a lack of intelligence.
Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.
Lacking in intelligence?
Have you ever been in an argument and called your opponent stupid?
How did that go?
Generally, calling people dumb doesn't exude emotional intelligence.
Yet here is Sprint suggesting that Verizon customers might not do too well on the presidential cognitive test.
In a new ad, the budget carrier features a man called Jim hyperventilating. Helpfully, Sprint (and former Verizon) spokesman Paul Marcarelli explains that Jim has just opened his Verizon bill.
Marcarelli then introduces him to a "Smarter You."
This is the you who has switched to Sprint and saved 50 percent on the unlimited plan.
This is a much happier you, one whose shirt doesn't hang out of one's trousers and who, um, whistles all the time.
This, frankly, is a slightly more annoying you.
Verizon declined to comment on this denigration of its customers.
Some might find it odd that Sprint is, yet again, hawking its budget prices when in November it was teasing a price hike this quarter.
Moreover, how much confidence can customers have in a company that seems keen to effect a merger and doesn't necessarily come out looking great when that merger collapses?
The thing about intelligence is that you don't always know whether your decisions are smart or less so.
Time weaves a tricky path. What seems like a clever thing to do can, over the following days, months and years, turn out to be not so wise.
I confess that, in a recent visit to a Sprint store, I wasn't overwhelmed with the smartness on offer. Perhaps that's because I need to access my smarter me.
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