Manly Droid Strikes Back: New Ads Dismiss iPhone

Verizon Wireless’ attack on the iPhone has devolved into chest-beating, with a Droid ad that vaguely slams Apple’s “beauty” and any phone th

at’s a “tiara-wearing, digitally clueless beauty pageant queen.”

The ad is full of little quips like that: “It’s not a princess, it’s a robot. A phone that trades hairdo for can-do.” Though the iPhone isn’t directly mentioned, there appears to be a white phone that kind of looks like it.

I’m lamenting the days when Droid ads actually mentioned some features. This commercial is all about image, and the message is clear: Guys, this phone is for you.

The ad essentially admits that the Droid isn’t pretty. And that’s true. The phone is a plain, rectangular block that’s bigger and heavier than the iPhone and, to quote Computerworld’s Matt Hamblen, geared towards “guys, especially.”

Not to say that appreciating beauty is a gender thing, but there’s a certain testosterone in lines like “racehorse duct-taped to a SCUD missile fast” and “does dig through the Web like a circular saw through a ripe banana.” An earlier Droid ad showed stealth bombers blasting the phone into the rural countryside like meteorites.

That angle appears to be paying off. According to a mid-November snapshot of brand loyalty by YouGov Brand Index, loyalty to Motorola spiked among men ages 18 and up after the Droid launched.

But is the shock and awe really necessary? Though I’m not a fan of the Apple smugness, what I like about iPhone ads is how they demonstrate the product. Seriously, look at a few of them.

By obsessing over image, Verizon is just as guilty of what it appears to be mocking.