Verizon Taps High-Octane Filmmaker Michael Bay for New FiOS Advertising Campaign

NEW YORK - Celebrated filmmaker Michael Bay will be the first celebrity featured in a new advertising campaign for Verizon FiOS TV and FiOS Internet services.  Themed "This is FiOS; This is Big," the new campaign - created for Verizon by McCann Erickson, New York - showcases the groundbreaking services delivered over Verizon's advanced fiber-optic network straight to customers' homes.

"Michael Bay is a larger-than-life figure because he's a powerful game-changer," said John Wimsatt, senior vice president of marketing for Verizon Telecom.  "Verizon FiOS is the best and first choice for home entertainment because the power of our fiber-optic network delivers the best picture quality, fastest Internet and most-innovative interactive services.  Michael Bay is the perfect choice to help portray the big, powerful experiences that FiOS creates in home entertainment and broadband."

Bay - who is famous for directing cutting-edge, high-octane blockbusters like "Transformers," "Pearl Harbor," "Bad Boys" and "Armageddon" - stars in an action-packed, 30-second TV spot for Verizon FiOS Internet service that begins airing Sunday (Feb. 17).   In the ad, Bay deftly spoofs his own super-charged Hollywood persona as he blows up things throughout a super-contemporary home to show how Verizon "blows away" cable Internet service with upload and download speeds that are up to 25 times faster.  While a Verizon technician installs FiOS Internet service in the home, Bay uses a remote detonator to blow up a barbecue grill and swimming pool.  He also shows off his pet cat - a Bengal tiger - and a 20-foot-tall Transformer to underscore how "awesome" - a word he continuously repeats - he finds the Verizon fiber-optic technology.

"Verizon is the only Internet provider offering this kind of symmetrical service in the United States on a mass scale," said Wimsatt.  "The flash and excitement of our new ad reflects how FiOS Internet changes everything by creating a whole new category of U.S. broadband where 'fast' applies equally to receiving and sending data."

An additional spot featuring another game-changing superstar will air at a later date and will highlight more of the many innovative new features accessible to consumers through Verizon's advanced fiber-optic network. 

In addition to ads featuring popular celebrities, the new campaign includes TV spots that showcase FiOS customers sharing stories about the difference FiOS has made in their television and online experiences.

The "This is FiOS; This is Big" campaign demonstrates that FiOS TV is a formidable competitor to cable and satellite TV.  FiOS TV delivers amazingly sharp pictures and sound, and has the capacity to transmit a wide array of high-definition programming that is so clear and intense it seems to leap from the TV screen.  The company's fiber network also delivers Internet download speeds of up to 50 megabits per second (Mbps) and upload speeds of up to 20 Mbps, as well as high-quality voice service.  Verizon is the only major telecom company building a fiber-optic network all the way to customers' homes on a mass scale.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ), headquartered in New York, is a leader in delivering broadband and other wireline and wireless communication innovations to mass market, business, government and wholesale customers.  Verizon Wireless operates America's most reliable wireless network, serving nearly 66 million customers nationwide.  Verizon's Wireline operations include Verizon Business, which delivers innovative and seamless business solutions to customers around the world, and Verizon Telecom, which brings customers the benefits of converged communications, information and entertainment services over the nation's most advanced fiber-optic network.  A Dow 30 company, Verizon employs a diverse workforce of nearly 235,000 and last year generated consolidated operating revenues of $93.5 billion.  For more information, visit www.verizon.com.

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