[Laura Knotek]

My ISP is AT&T. I seen ads for BlackBerry on my home page for the past 3 days. The ads I saw Saturday and yesterday were for the $99 Storm from Verizon.

The ad on my home page today is a general ad for the Bold. Clicking on the ad takes me to RIM's Web site.

Have any of you noticed a lot of online advertising for BlackBerry lately?

[jdbower#CB]

I haven't noticed too much in the way of online BB ads, but truth be told I don't tend to notice most online ads (shhh! If word gets out we'll have to pay for Crackberry!). Actually, the ones that are relevant I tend to pick up on, show me an ad for a cook book on a BBQ site or for a Storm accessory on Crackberry and I'm more willing to take a closer look - but online ads for Blackberries on CrackBerry wouldn't be breaking news

What I have noticed is a little more product placement than I remember. I don't watch much first-run TV, but in particular the USA Network show Royal Pains has the main character prominently using a BlackBerry. I can't remember which one he had in the pilot, but he upgraded to a Storm shortly after (with a typical Hollywood GUI, of course). Nurse Jackie also had a doctor with a BB in the pilot (but a patient with a head wound suggested an iPhone). Maybe Blackberry is going to be like Nikon and try to capture the lucrative product placement market - after all, traditional commercials are rapidly dying thanks to DVRs and Hulu but product placement even makes it to DVDs and pirated material.

[Laura Knotek]

I always notice product placement. That's been done for years. Cars, beverages, brands of clothes have always been featured in movies and TV shows.

I do think it is kind of funny that I'm seeing Verizon BB ads on my homepage, since my ISP is AT&T. I wouldn't think they would run competitors' ads on their homepage. Still, I like the BB ads better than the annoying diet pill ads.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com