So I noticed this new series of commercials for Alltel. They make the ‘Alltel guy’ a nice, respectable gentleman while the Sprint, Verizon, T-Mobile, Cingular, etc. guys are all overweight and or uber-nerdy. What gave marketing America the right to start going all political-style mud slinging with their TV ads?

Rather than simple self promotion, it seems like it’s becoming more commonplace to just come out and say not only “we’re better” but “they’re inferior.” Granted, it’s kind of implied in saying you’re better than someone or something by showing you’re own superiority, but for that same reason it seems like you simply don’t need to see it. It feels really demeaning to me as a viewer and almost like the marketing guys at Alltel just ran out of ideas. What do you do when you run out of ideas? Copy Mac’s marketing approach.

Post Script - The TV’s on right now and I just saw a commercial for Mazda - same deal. C’mon people.