Donnie Wahlberg Promotes Verizon FiOS in a City Where It’s Unavailable

Donnie Wahlberg at Copley Square in a new FiOS commercial

“This is New England, where people tell it straight. No phonies, no fakers, no shortcuts. Verizon FiOS never takes shortcuts either,” says Donnie Wahlberg in a new commercial while standing near Copley Square, a part of the city where the straight-talking tenants might point out that they cannot actually get FiOS.

Indeed, though Verizon built its fiber-optic cable network in several surrounding communities, it has never wired Boston, despite the city’s efforts to lure them here and bring speedy internet and more competition to the masses. Instead, residents are left with Comcast, RCN, and satellite. Mayor Menino did some classic New England telling it straight when the Boston Globe asked him about the commercial. “I think they should put in big letters in the ad, ‘We do not serve Boston. But we’re using Boston as a backdrop, because Boston is a great city,’ ” Menino said.

Meanwhile, Wahlberg finishes the commercial with a dig at Verizon’s Boston non-rival. “Comcast can talk all they want but New Englanders know the truth,” he says, by which we presume he means, “they know that if they move to Boston, they’ll be Comcast customers.”