Fightin' Words

Comcast [CMCSA] rolled out its response to the Verizon [VZ] attack ad where a man calls Comcast and Verizon and proclaims, "I almost made the wrong call" after learning about Verizon’s lower rates and spam-blocker service. The Comcast ad is dubbed "Parody;" it looks nearly identical to Verizon’s, but the dialogue’s different. This time the consumer discovers Verizon’s DSL speeds vary by where one lives, while Comcast offer 3 Mbps across its service area. "I almost made the wrong call," he tells the Comcast CSR. The ads have resonated within Comcast, with evp, biz dev Steve Silva describing how employees cheered the spots at a recent mgmt conference. "It’s like the kid on the playground who steals your lunch money," Comcast svp, marketing/biz dev Greg Butz says at CTAM Digital. "You have to say what you will not accept." The fighting-back sentiment was echoed several times at last week’s confab. Cox [COX] vp/regional manager Bill Geppert described how SBC [SBC] employees tore the Cox logo off the paper numbers they were wearing in a heart walk sponsored by Cox. "We’re in a war," he says. "These people called us pigs," Silva says. "Do we take that?"