Steve Harvey plays off Miss Universe flub in Super Bowl T-Mobile ad
By RODNEY HO/ rho@ajc.com, originally filed Sunday, February 7, 2016
Atlanta comic and TV host Steve Harvey decided to make fun of his recent Miss Universe flub in a special Super Bowl T-Mobile ad that aired during the second quarter - and make a few extra bucks, too.
In the 30-second ad costing the communications carrier an estimated $5 million just to air it in that slot on CBS, T-Mobile takes issue with a ubiquitous Verizon ad which claims that Verizon has better coverage than T-Mobile by a wide margin. Harvey in the ad said Verizon's data is outdated, that T-Mobile has added more towers in the past year.
"I have to apologize - again," Harvey said in the ad, holding a card like he did during Miss Universe when he read the wrong name as the winner and had to return with the correct one. "Those were last year's numbers. It says right here on the card, T-Mobile doubled its LTE coverage in the past year with more LTE towers than Verizon... I'm not taking responsibility on this one! Uh uh. Verizon got it wrong!"
T-Mobile included the hashtag #ballogize.
No response yet from Verizon.
About the Author
Rodney Ho writes about entertainment for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution including TV, radio, film, comedy and all things in between. A native New Yorker, he has covered education at The Virginian-Pilot, small business for The Wall Street Journal and a host of beats at the AJC over 20-plus years. He loves tennis, pop culture & seeing live events.
