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Boost Mobile calls out other carriers in Santa TV ad

Boost Mobile, the prepaid division of Sprint Nextel, is accusing other carriers of being too expensive in the latest installment of its ?Unwronged? commercials, this time featuring Santa Claus.

This holiday season even Santa is being abused with an overpriced mobile-phone plan and is forced to make cutbacks in the form of a seven-foot-tall elf and donkey stand-ins to lug his sleigh, as per the Boost commercial. The TV spots began airing on Nov. 17 and run through the remainder of the year on 20 networks and cable TV stations, including NBC, Fox, ESPN, ABC Family, Bravo and TBS.

?The target demographic is ages 24 to 49 with the intent to appeal to the female head-of-the-household to increase purchase consideration during the holidays,? said Peiti Feng, manager of media and advertising at Boost Mobile, Irvine, CA.

Boost Mobile, a division of Sprint Corp., offers wireless phones and services with no contracts or activation fees. Boost lets its customers pay for their wireless service by the minute, day or month.

Boost-branded wireless phones are available nationwide at nearly 20,000 retail stores, including Best Buy, RadioShack, Target and Walmart, Sprint retail stores and independent wireless dealer locations and on television home-shopping networks.

The creative behind these commercials comes from Boost Mobile?s advertising agency of record, 180LA.

180 is an international ad agency with offices in Amsterdam and Los Angeles. In addition to Boost Mobile, 180?s client roster includes Adidas International, Sony Consumer Electronics USA, Sony Corp., Amstel Beer, HBO and Omega Watches.

Santa?s broke

This is the TV spot:

The TV spot features the Motorola Debut i856, Boost Mobile?s first push-to-talk slider phone.

?Motorola is currently Boost Mobile?s exclusive handset provider and the Motorola Debut i856 is the latest handset that we?ve launched, which is why we featured it in our latest holiday spot,? Ms. Feng said.

In addition to touting the Debut?s features, the Boost Mobile TV commercial promotes its $50 Monthly Unlimited plan, which offers unlimited, nationwide, anytime calling, text messaging, wireless Web and walkie-talkie service in 17,500 cities throughout the United States on the Nextel National Network.

Boost Mobile claims that price will have no additional telecom taxes, activation, roaming, traveling or long-distance fees.

The TV ad is not viewable on Boost Mobile phones, and Boost Mobile has not run any on-deck house ads to promote this campaign.

The goal of the TV commercial is to push Boost Mobile?s all-you-can-eat plan and its newest handset.

?The Motorola Debut i856 is targeted toward high-tech users in their twenties that want a phone with compelling multimedia features, such as a 1.3MP camera with video capture, instant music access and Stereo Bluetooth capabilities,? Ms. Feng said.