Dear TVNZ – I don’t care if this kid finds his biological father, why are you launching a cellphone service when you can barely do TV?
The Vodafone rebrand to One New Zealand was supposed to feel bold and local. Instead, it feels like a TV ad that never ends — and somehow got mistaken for a business strategy. Meanwhile, TVNZ is catching the heat for it.
If you were a world-renowned brand like Vodafone, why would you change your name to something that sounds like a TVNZ channel?
Every time I see the advert, my first thought is: why is TVNZ launching into cellphones when they can’t even get news right?
When your brand confuses people this badly, something’s gone wrong
All this advert tells me is that Vodafone — or whatever they call themselves now — has way too much money to burn on a narrative no one actually cares about.
What makes me laugh is that the Vodafone sales rep is still actively helping the main character find his biological father.
Is she getting paid overtime for that?
Why is she so committed to solving this man’s life story when I can barely get customer service when something goes wrong?
She does understand that finding his biological dad isn’t in the warranty, right?
Because that’s the disconnect.
You’re selling signal, coverage, reliability — not emotional closure.
And yet the ad leans so hard into storytelling it forgets the actual product.
Meanwhile, real customers are still stuck on hold.
And why does every ad feel like a short film no one asked for?
PS — I find the ASB Bank couple… very unconvincing.
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Many ads seem to forget they are there to provide brand recognition. Often ads come and go and I ask myself what are they trying to sell me or how do I buy it .
If you were a world renown brand called ‘Vodaphone’ why would you change your name to sound like a TVNZ channel?
That would be because Infratil the owner of One, the mobile phone company, decided to rebrand rather than pay $30mill per year naming rights to vodafone international. Thats a big lump of money available to spend on media over at TVNZ One.
Is there a cunning plan a foot for Infratil to position then profit by merging OneTVNZ and One Mobile?
Mobile company losing its saleable mobile ‘minutes’ to whats app. TVNZ losing its legacy advertising to Youtube. Both businesses hang onto profit by integrating their hand held mobile data gateway and the tvnz+ streaming service. And we have a government that wants to privatise everything for mates after the election.
Of course if you dont like your phone service’s TV ads you can port your number at 2degrees and support Maori Spectrum Owners + Ontario Teacher Pension fund owners of 2degrees cell tower network + the 2degrees business run by VocusNZ owned by a McQuarrie Bank Australian Superfund.