Sprint Puts a Spring in Your Ring

While Verizon still touts that smirking four-eyed fellow as its pitchman, rival Sprint stirs up innuendo by parodying male inadequacy to flaunt the connective advantages of its mobile broadband products. With its goal being to cure "connectile dysfunction," the wireless carrier is urging business travelers to enter its Connectile Dysfunction Treatment Center, an online destination/facility that spins off of Sprint Nextel's Super Bowl ads—minus the deluge of branding. "There's very little branding in there and that was done on purpose so it doesn't feel like Sprint is being rammed down consumer's throat," explains Dominic Goldman, interactive creative director for Publicis & Hal Riney, the agency responsible for the CDTC. Like a 4am infomercial, the site first greets visitors with amusing video testimonials of CD sufferers, which then leads to a cheery secretary who welcomes you with many options, including a tour of the Center and its three "therapy" rooms, a fetching, fictional Dr. Cate McManus explaining what CD is, and the coup de grace, the "Admit a Friend" feature. Fill out a form with a friend or colleague's name, email address, field of work, and his girlfriend's name, and the Center will send a customized video (culled from hundreds of pieces of footage) of McManus discussing your recipient's own "connectile" issues. "B2B is quite dull usually, so we thought this would cut through the B2B clutter out there," says Goldman. "This is aimed at the business traveler who suffers from [CD]. It gets these businessmen to have a laugh and send to their friends and colleagues." A laugh that is only after the few seconds of shock wears off.

Sprint Puts a Spring in Your Ring

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