streeter:

I think Alltel Wireless has the greatest disparity between the reality of the marketplace and the reality of their advertising.  I just saw a spot where claymation customers line up outside of an Alltel retailer to but their new phones while the biggies - Spint, Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile - are shaking in their boots.  I get that advertising is meant to sway an opinion on a given product, but come on.  I don’t know one person who is ditching Verizon to buy some Alltel phone.  Hell, I don’t know one person with an Alltel phone.  Maybe McDonalds is worse.  I’ve never been to a McDonalds populated by fit customers eating perfectly constructed sandwiches.  But at least McDonalds doesn’t this annoying dude for a spokesperson.

Fortunately, we may not have to put up with these commercials for very much longer since Verizon just completed their buy-out of Alltel last Friday. I was told during an interview I went on back in July just days after the offer was made that Verizon liked aspects of Alltel’s marketing that included the Chad character.

Unfortunately, they are estimating that about 10,000 jobs will be eliminated mainly at the corporate headquarters located in Little Rock, Arkansas. Perhaps, Chad’s job will be salvaged.