I have a confession. I have a huge crush on Carly Foulkes. In case you were unawares, she just so happens to be “the girl in the pink dress” behind just about all of T-Mobile’s commercials since 2010. In her latest teaser video, Carly has taken off her sweet, wholesome pink dress and slipped into something a little more… leather, as T-Mobile readies for the launch of the HTC One S.
Apparently, the new “good girl, gone bad” image is part of T-Mobile’s newest efforts to re-brand themselves this year and stand out from the pack. According to T-Mobile’s senior VP Peter DeLuca, “We really can’t wait until the end of the year to make some noise in the market.”
Seems T-Mobile will be betting big on the HTC One S, as they plan to invest $200 million to boost advertising spending. The One S will be one of the first devices to receive a good portion of this spending seeing how T-Mobile is one of the few US carriers to not offer the iPhone on their network. T-Mobile will no doubt highlight the One S’s superiority over the iPhone 4S — even attempting to lure diehard iOS users as they rollout their 3G network across their old 2G bands. Part of this marketing push will be a new “test drive” website where T-Mobile will showcase the speed of the devices they currently offer, over the competition.
DeLuca also went on to say, “We really want to set the record straight and say to the consumer they really should be taking a second look at T-Mobile.”
The new company re-branding and recent cutting of call center jobs to help alleviate costs (there’s even talk T-Mobile could be selling their US cell towers) seems more like a last ditch effort to save a sinking ship. As a current T-Mobile customer, I wish them the best. Can’t say I’d like living in a world where we only have 3 options for cellphone service… or one with no Carly.