Note: This post originally had Comcast in place of Verizon, because apparently I was too focused on the chubby little kid to notice what the hell this commercial was for. (And then Worcester Magazine repeated my mistake when it included the post in its “blog log.” Alas, a reader set me straight in the comments, and so I’ve made the changes. Also, now that I’m searching for the right thing, I found the commercial on YouTube and a picture of the kid on Adfreak.

Ever catch the new Verizon FiOS commercial, where a dad’s sitting on a chair and his little, chubby-cheeked son walks by? “Hey pal, talking to the cable guy?” says dad, to which son responds with a rambling bit of high-tech lingo about FiOS. Dad’s perplexed. The commercial cuts to the pitch about FiOS (whatever it is; I never really pay attention), and then we’re back to dad and son, who are now outside watching the cable guy finish his installation. Some beams of light fly out of the wall. Dad is impressed. Then son says to dad, “You should see his truck.”

It’s supposed to be cute – the cable guy’s got all sorts of cool stuff! – but here’s the problem: You should see his truck? Was this boy inside the truck? Or, more to the point: Did the Verizon guy take the boy into the truck? Who at Verizon thought this would be a good, lasting message? “Verizon: We’ll set up your television, then molest your kid!”