Wireless carrier Sprint on Friday announced “Your World with Luther North,” its latest promotional video series advertising the company’s mobile offerings. The series was developed through a partnership with Onion Labs, the creative division of Onion Inc, a Chicago-based media company that runs the famous satirical news portal The Onion. As can be seen in the video below, the series stars American actor Paul Marcarelli who was previously featured in numerous ads financed by Verizon Wireless. The fourth largest mobile service provider in the United States admitted that it wanted to make some lighthearted digs based on Marcarelli’s switch to Sprint, which is how its six-part video series came to be.
The series is focused on the so-called “Paul Effect” and Marcarelli’s celebrity status in the country, with Sprint being quick to point out that its ads starring Marcarelli have been met with a highly positive response from consumers. Apart from making fun of the fact that Marcarelli became a celebrity thanks to being featured in Verizon’s ads, the series is also unsurprisingly advertising Sprint’s own offerings, especially the company’s newly introduced Unlimited plan pricing. The humorous series is presented in a traditional news magazine format and can be seen in its entirety on the official Onion Labs’ YouTube channel. The practice of debuting ads that make fun of competitors has been a long-time tradition in the U.S. telecommunications industry, and Verizon in particular has been a popular target of such promotions in recent years, likely because the Big Red boasts the largest market share in the country.
The newly released video series marks the latest attempt by Sprint to win more customers to its network as the company continues to struggle to keep up with its largest competitors. While “Your World with Luther North” is certainly humorous in nature, Sprint’s upcoming conference call with investors and analysts will likely be anything but seeing how the company is expected to face tough questions regarding its performance after it releases its annual financials next month. According to recent reports, the Overland Park, Kansas-based firm is currently struggling with debt that’s being added more quickly than equity, making the company too leveraged and casting some doubt on its future prospects.