I have to admit that I have never been a fan of Verizon.  When I subscribed to their service, it was just one problem after another for me…and don’t get me started on the “Can you hear me now…” ad campaign.  But tonight, while watching the baseball game, I have seen a couple of ads which just knocked my socks off.

The first is a direct attack on Apple’s, “There’s an app for that” ad campaign.  This commercial parodies Apple’s famous tagline with the line, “There’s a map for that,” as the image compares Verizon’s 3G coverage map with AT&T’s.  Absolutely brilliant marketing (are you listening, Microsoft?)

Hot on the heels of this one, though, is another clever assault on Apple’s iPhone, as Verizon follows up on their recent deal with Google, unleashing their Droid phones.  This clever campaign introduces the new phones while highlighting all the features the iPhone does not include (including multitasking).  No word yet on exactly what droid will look like, but we can tell you this much:

• It is coming soon
• It runs Android 2.0
• It has a 5.0 megapixel camera
• It has over 10,000 apps (including navigation, music, video, and more)
• It does multi-tasking

Check out the Droid website for more (though really not a whole lot more).  Apparently, the site is counting down to October 30, which is not too far away.  So, you can expect to see more information soon.  We’ll keep you posted on Verizon’s Droid as more information becomes available (and who knows, one of us might even be able to get our hands on one soon).

I think it is great to see someone directly taking on the behemoth that is the iPhone.  These ads really highlight Apple’s and AT&T’s vulnerabilities (and they do have vulnerabilities).  Of course, whether the Droid will actually take on the iPhone remains to be seen…but it is great to see someone trying this hard.