Verizon Droid escalates its war on the iPhone by calling it a sissy

Since its introduction last month, the Droid, a Motorola phone available via Verizon Wireless, has come out swinging. The first ads, from mcgarrybowen, went after the iPhone by noting a series of things the hip Apple gadget doesn't do, like run multiple apps simultaneously or mow your lawn. But the latest Droid ad hits below the belt by accusing the iPhone of being (gulp) a sissy phone. "Should a phone be pretty?" it asks. "Should it be a tiara-wearing, digitally clueless beauty queen?" (To get the point across, the ad employs a visual of a tiara-wearing beauty-queen doll.) Casting the idea of prettiness aside, the Droid is presented as a phone that "rips through the Web like a circular saw through a ripe banana." Hey, Steve, it's on. I haven't seen a brand go after another's masculinity like this since Budweiser's infamous "Queen of Carbs" attack on SABMiller in 2004.

—Posted by Todd Wasserman

Motorola finds a nice, cozy place inside Facebook status updates

David Armano posted an alert on his Posterous blog this week that Motorola has somehow been getting into Facebook streams. He noticed the cell phone maker's logo appearing next to some status updates. After looking around, I found a Motorola page on Facebook, rich in fans and various elements touting Motoblur, a new service from Motorola that the company claims "puts everything you're into at your fingertips." The service, available on the Andoid-based CLIQ smartphone, is in essence a unified inbox for texts, e-mails and messages from Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. Motorola told me that the small Motorola logo appears when consumers use Motoblur to update Facebook from their CLIQ phones. Given the social nature of Motoblur, it's no surprise the phone maker is using a social network to get buzz going. It's proof that we're more connected than ever, and that we can't escape brand advertising, not even in our private, and yet very public, digital world.

—Posted by Elena Malykhina

Motorola is back and really wants to be your friend with the Cliq

Motorola really hasn't done much in a while, and most would be hard-pressed to name a recent phone from the company, unless you consider 2005 "recent," in which case the Razr would fit the bill. Now, here's a promo video for Moto's big comeback phone, the Cliq, so named because of its social-networking features. (Tagline: "How social is your phone?") Indeed, the design seems to go the iPhone and BlackBerry one better by featuring all your friend feeds, including Twitter, Facebook, Gmail, etc., in one place. That feature, called Motoblur, is a good idea, but one that it seems like it wouldn't be too hard to adapt to other touch-screen smart phones. Still, we're glad Moto's finally back with a device that looks like it's from 2009. Where the hell have you guys been?

—Posted by Todd Wasserman