After a second-quarter ad for Motorola ("Empower the People") tried to recast Apple as the hegemonic villain of "1984," a surprise second-quarter ad from Verizon touts the iPhone's arrival with the company.

Verizon had said only the month before that at long last it would beging selling Apple's iPhone, which until then was exclusively available through AT&T.

As Time magazine's ad roundup described it,

It begins with a sleek shot of Apple's iPhone 4 in all its glory. The only real flaw for the phone is its often shoddy AT&T service. But wait -- the Verizon guy picks it up to save the day, now that the service can be used with Apple's phone! While somewhat uneventful, the ad's interesting just to see the iPhone in a commercial that's not made by Apple.

The marketer's previous Super Bowl appearance was all the way back in 2005, when its "Miniaturization" spot sold audiences on high-quality mobile video long before that was taken for granted.

Verizon would not be back to the game again until 2017. By that point the spokesman seen here, "Can you hear me now?" guy Paul Marcarelli, had been dropped by Verizon and eventually picked up by Sprint.

BRAND: Verizon

YEAR: 2011

SUPERBOWL: XLV

QUARTER AIRED: 4