Modern Post Founder and Creative Lead William Town Edits Verizon's "Simplicity Is Sexy"

Verizon is carving out a niche for itself with a campaign featuring another TV-series hockey hunk—this time it’s Stephen Kalyn, who stars as Dean in Amazon Prime Video’s “Off Campus.”

The campaign, called “Simplicity is Sexy,” supports the launch of Verizon’s Simplicity plan, announced with a Jay Roach-directed “Austin Powers” spot released last week. The new spot uses a stripped-down, high-fashion visual style that nods to Calvin Klein campaigns from the 1990s and early 2000s. Kalyn dances in a mostly empty room to INXS’ “Never Tear Us Apart,” with the pared-back creative approach meant to mirror Verizon’s broader effort to simplify how customers choose, manage and pay for wireless service.

The ad was directed by Bardia Zeinali, who previously worked on Calvin Klein’s “Deal with It” campaign featuring Justin Bieber, Kendall Jenner, Maluma and others. Verizon handled creative internally, with production from Ogilvy and Anonymous Content.

The campaign marks Kalyn’s first major brand deal. Verizon also secured the first brand deal for “Heated Rivalry” star Connor Storrie, who appeared in a horror short directed by Nia DaCosta for the brand that debuted in March.


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