Super Bowl Ends With a Brawl ... Between T-Mobile and Sprint CEOs

Sprint and T-Mobile spend most of their time fighting AT&T and Verizon.

Both of them like to compare their rates to those of their two larger rivals and target most of their “switcher” promotions at the bigger companies, rather than at one another.

But on Sunday night, following Super Bowl commercials from both companies, the CEOs of both companies took aim at each other on Twitter.

It began with T-Mobile CEO John Legere dissing Sprint’s commercial — and its network — as “half-assed.”

https://twitter.com/JohnLegere/status/562072388654092289

Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure fired back, posting a picture that said, “Never sacrifice your class to get even with someone who has none. Take the high road.”

https://twitter.com/marceloclaure/status/562076136796991489

However, Claure also retweeted some posts unfavorable to both T-Mobile and its Super Bowl spokeswoman, Kim Kardashian West.

That prompted a further tweet from Legere, suggesting that Claure keep his “stay classy” mantra in mind when it comes to what he retweets.

https://twitter.com/johnlegere/status/562093049908854785

Much as the Super Bowl contest itself was marred by end-of-game fighting, the Twitter squabbling belied what had been two pretty fun TV ad campaigns. T-Mobile had Kardashian directly tweeting anyone who signed up, sending pictures from her private “stash,” while Sprint apologized for comparing AT&T and Verizon to sheep, this time ending by saying they were more like a … cut to an image of a donkey.

Here are the commercials:

T-Mobile:

Sprint:

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

Will you support Vox’s explanatory journalism?

Most news outlets make their money through advertising or subscriptions. But when it comes to what we’re trying to do at Vox, there are a couple of big issues with relying on ads and subscriptions to keep the lights on:

First, advertising dollars go up and down with the economy. We often only know a few months out what our advertising revenue will be, which makes it hard to plan ahead.

Second, we’re not in the subscriptions business. Vox is here to help everyone understand the complex issues shaping the world — not just the people who can afford to pay for a subscription. We believe that’s an important part of building a more equal society. And we can’t do that if we have a paywall.

So even though advertising is still our biggest source of revenue, we also seek grants and reader support. (And no matter how our work is funded, we have strict guidelines on editorial independence.)

If you also believe that everyone deserves access to trusted high-quality information, will you make a gift to Vox today? Any amount helps.

One-Time Monthly Annual

$5/month

$10/month

$25/month

$50/month

Other

$

Yes, I'll give $5/month

Yes, I'll give $5/month

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via