In marketing and advertising, a parody concept is a strategic and creative tactic that negatively or humorously uses a competitors existing campaign to highlight negative points and attempts to persuade the consumer away from the competitor and toward their brand.
Although I wouldn't dare to parody a competitor in my career, but as a consumer, I find parodies highly entertaining. And if done clever enough, often times the parody resonates far beyond the original.
I don't recall the cell phone carriers being openly and aggressively competitive in advertising 5-6 years ago, but recently it seems that with every new Verizon campaign, Sprint or T-Mobile have a quick rebuttal.
Most recently, Verizon's Mic Drop campaign. To keep up with the competition, Verizon announced an unlimited data plan with Silicon Valley actor, Thomas Middleditch, standing on a red carpet, with a mic in hand, who spoke to a group of patrons whom are all gathered at a public park. At the conclusion of his speech he literally drops the mic to figuratively close the conversation and send a message to the competitors.
Weeks after airing, Sprint responded with a parody. Sprint continues the conversation by using the once Verizon poster boy, Can-you-hear-me-now? actor Paul Marcarelli, who literally picks up the mic to continue the conversation that Verizon attempted to close. Marcarelli is also standing on a red carpet and appears to be in the same setting as Middleditch.
Verizon's latest Mic Drop campaign.
Sprint's response to Verizon's Mic Drop campaign.
But before this Mic Drop campaign, there were the colorful balls. Verizon used colorful balls which symbolized each of the carriers to visually explain awards they had recently won. Sprint and T-Mobile each responded with their own versions of Verizon's commercial to set the record straight. Watch all three below.
Verizon's Colorful Balls campaign + Sprint's response + T-Mobile's response
What are your thoughts on parodies in advertising?
I think it's interesting what both brands have chosen to do. Obviously, cell phone carriers take digs at each other all the time in their advertisements, considering that their products are near identical and directly addressing what their competitors are offering is one of the only ways to stand out for consumers. However, I think that Sprint and T-Mobile have been pretty clever with their clapbacks at Verizon. It's not just calling them out with statistics, but rather, trying to beat them at their own game. I don't know that I would be comfortable so directly addressing my competitors, but cell phone providing seems like a kind of dog-eat-dog industry, so I'm sure they have no qualms about doing it.
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