Another Sexist Ad Campaign for Verizon Wireless?

When the Motorola Droid smartphone debuted last fall, Verizon marketed the phone as a manly man’s device, referring to its biggest competitor – ahem, the iPhone, although not mentioned specifically – as a “digitally clueless beauty queen.” The Droid, on the other hand, was portrayed, in automobile vernacular, as a cross between a Porsche and a monster truck. Every man’s dream ride, right?

Now, in new TV spots, Verizon is putting its own phone in a traditional, feminine role. Check out this ad for the Palm Pre Plus, a phone that made its debut on the Verizon Wireless network last month:

The question is whether targeting the “mom market” will backfire. Will some women be turned off by the portrayal? Will men consider it to be too fem? The ad says the Pre Plus is “smart enough to keep up with mom.” Hmmm.

The original Pre was a Sprint exclusive for seven months. The Pre Plus has double the original’s internal memory. There is 16GB of flash memory and an inductive battery cover. The Palm Pixi Plus made its Verizon debut at the same time last month.