Verizon's long-time 'can you hear me now' pitch-man has jumped ship to Sprint

Throughout the 2000s, Paul Marcarelli was best-known as Verizon's "can you hear me now" guy.

But now the bespectacled Verizon pitchman has switched to one of the carrier's biggest rivals.

In a new spot, "Paul Switched," Marcarelli explains he's jumped ship to Sprint because its "reliability is now within 1% of Verizon."

He also notes that Sprint saves you "50%" on "most" Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile rates.

He signs off by saying: "So I switched to Sprint and millions more have too. Can you hear that?"

In an interview with USA Today, where we first saw the ad, Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure said the ads were "very factual."

He added: "Our goal is basically to get people when they're watching our ads or watching social media to pay attention ... I think a lot of people are going to recognize Paul and see [him] in a [Sprint-colored] yellow [t-shirt] and ask themselves, 'what happened?'"

The spot was created by ad agency Deutsch.

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