Verizon and McCann Erickson roll out mini-celebrities to promote mini V-casts -- “broadband-quality video on your phone,” long before that was commonplace. Little Shaq high-fiving is fun, little Neon Deion purchasing bling is funny, and “Miniaturization” is all Super Bowl advertising: a concept, a joke, special effects and celebrity.

Verizon didn't return to the Super Bowl in 2006, when the telco business was represented by a new (if ultimately short-lived) cellphone service under the ESPN brand name ("Sports Heaven"). It wouldn't be back, in fact, until 2011, when it had a brand-new deal to break AT&T's exclusivity with the iPhone to pitch ("I Can Hear You Now").

Director: Kinka Usher, whose other Super Bowl credits would include Taco Bell’s “It Rocks” and “Poem” in 2010 and Bridgestone’s “Carma” in 2011. Production company: House of Usher. Executive creative director: Steve Ohler. Copywriter: George Dewey. Art director: Chris Quillen. Agency producers: Emily Sussman, Peter Friedman. Editorial company: Mackenzie-Cutler.

BRAND: Verizon

YEAR: 2005

AGENCY: McCann Erickson

SUPERBOWL: XXXIX