Bell vs Rogers

If you are from Canada, or more specifically Toronto, you were most likely exposed to the “couch wars” that took place last year between Rogers Wireless and Bell Mobility. As I have heard from so many people, thinking back on the ads, it is confusing trying to recall which company each ad was actually for. The ads came in form of print, billboards, and web based ads, but all were practically identical to each other.  If you are from the US or anywhere else in the world, to get you up to speed Rogers and Bell are the two main mobile providers here in Canada. We don’t have the selection of carriers, products, services or technology that is available elsewhere in the world, and will still pay an arm and a leg for it. If you haven’t heard of these companies consider yourself lucky. Most of us here have at one time or another been so disappointed with one of the two companies that we have made the switch to the other, only to realize we were better off in the first place. But, that is beside the point – back to the ad wars.

I consider this unique Ad War between Bell and Rogers to be the epitome of comparison advertising.  Not only do the ads take jabs at one another, but they design the ads to look IDENTICAL.  This was the first advertisement I had seen, and correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m sure the following Rogers ad is what started it all.

Although they never actually mentioned Bell’s name, the blue in the ad was a clear enough shot at Bell. Finding it hard to ignore, Bell’s marketing team took it to the next step and started dropping names.

Taking advantage of the fact that the original ad wasn’t that distinguishable, Bell’s extended couch version made the consumer recall the original ad, although with the extended blue section, nobody could mistake that Bell was behind the new ad. After the second ad came out, I remember some folks believing that the original ad was also for Bell.

This went on for such a long period of time; other companies started to jump on the couch along with Bell and Rogers. This hilarious ad by Telehop is a great example.

If you haven’t checked out part 1 of the Ad wars, covering the Audi vs. BMW comparative advertisements, click here.