Verizon’s Bizarre New Ad Defies CRT Physics and Common Sense I know there are bigger problems in the world, but I have a duty to point out the travesty that is Verizon’s latest commercial. It is only thirty seconds long but might be one of the worst ads I have ever witnessed. The ad is meant to promote Verizon’s offer to give customers from AT&T and T-Mobile a better deal on a wireless plan if they bring in their current bill. That is a fine enough promotion. The problem is the central prop, a cathode-ray tube television. The commercial opens with a woman walking into a store that looks exactly like a Best Buy. She is carrying a 27-inch CRT TV. She casually hands the heavy-looking set to a young sales associate, telling him she has this old thing and the bill from the store where she got it. She says she figured the store could beat the bill with a better deal on one of the big flat panel TVs on display. Here is the first major issue. Did anyone involved in making this commercial ever try to lift a CRT television? It is 2025, and these sets are old, but their reputation for being incredibly heavy persists for a reason. The TV in the ad appears to be a model like the RCA 27R411T, which weighs approximately 75 pounds. People do not just casually toss these around. Countless online marketplace listings for CRTs explicitly warn buyers to bring a friend to help carry it. The woman in the ad handles it like it is a empty cardboard box, which completely shatters any believability. This leads to a more troubling thought. How did Verizon procure the CRT for this shoot? Consumer CRT production ceased long ago. Every working set is a relic on borrowed time. If the company gutted or destroyed a functional CRT just for this ad, that means one fewer working set exists in the world. That is a potential piece of history, enjoyed by retro enthusiasts, needlessly sent toward a landfill for a confusing commercial. The ad’s premise is also fundamentally flawed. No major retailer is accepting trade-ins for CRT televisions. They are considered e-waste by most standard outlets. But even if they were, trying to trade one in would be a terrible financial decision. CRTs, especially monitors and TVs sought by the retro gaming community, can be quite valuable. That same model of RCA TV can fetch a few hundred dollars on resale sites like eBay. A quick check shows one listed for 350 dollars. The commercial’s conclusion is the final insult. The salesperson tells the woman the store cannot give her a better deal on a new TV. Her response is to just walk away and leave the heavy, valuable CRT on the counter, saying, Guess you are not as cool as Verizon. This is a line no human has ever uttered sincerely. The joke is ultimately on her. Not only did she treat an impossibly heavy object with cartoonish ease, but she also abandoned what is arguably a cooler piece of technology than anything Verizon has ever marketed. The entire ad is a confusing mess that defies physics, logic, and the basic principles of vintage electronics appreciation.
