I was reading the Sunday paper this morning, and I came across an ad that made me chuckle so much I had to share it with you.

It’s your average Verizon Wireless newspaper ad, now touting their new LG enV phone.

My chuckle was when I noticed the phone on the far right.

It’s not about the phone. Frankly, I know absolutely nothing about the LG enV Touch. It could be the greatest thing for Verizon since the iPhone. Oh wait, Verizon doesn’t have the iPhone. It could be the greatest thing for Verizon since the Pre. Oh wait…

I chuckled at the screen shot they simulated on the “app-friendly” phone.

Step aside, iPhone…you can Twitter on this thing. How hip and our-app-store-can-eat-your-app-store is that?!? Many of the folks looking at the ad over their Sunday coffee aren’t sure what Twitter is exactly, but they’ve heard about it and know it has to mean the phone is cool.

But the agency that put this together didn’t take a legitimate screen shot and superimpose it on the phone, as I probably would have done. I would have followed Verizon-friendly coworkers who wouldn’t mind seeing their Twitter IDs in an ad. Maybe I’d just follow well-know accounts like CNN or Oprah. It seems that’s what Twitter is about these days to the mainstream. I would have waited until the screen shot looked interesting and clicked the shot. Done.

No, that would have been too obvious. Instead, Verizon fakes the m.twitter.com interface, and feeds it with made up tweets. They went through the trouble of darkening the type to make the shot legible, rather than a real screen shot that would have given the impression of a Twitter page without showing the details.

After all, I want to get me this phone if I can use it to find out that danmenezes is going to the tamale lady today, because that’s how people really use Twitter, right?

Thing is, danmenezes doesn’t exist. In the ad, Dan replies to his friend Shannon that he’s on the bus. Unlike Dan, she does exist, and from the 2 updates she’s sent to her 9 followers, it doesn’t look like she cares that Dan is stuck in traffic.

Our Verizon wireless friend is getting updates from Finance_Daily who tells him that the markets are due to rally, but Noel Fleming who actually uses that ID hasn’t said anything like that in his 23 updates to 7 followers except he did report on April 27th that Verizon stock beat. Close enough.

SportsZone with its 0 updates to 0 followers tells him game results that end in a dead bit.ly link. Yes, I tried to go to the link, thinking that the ad folks were at least clever enough to put in a URL that ends in a Verizon Wireless page. But no.

I know, I know. I’m too easily entertained.