Yes, You Can Hear Him Now: Verizon’s ‘Test Man’ Returns After Long Absence

Brian Steinberg

31 January 2025 at 10:30 am·2-min read

One of the best-known characters in modern advertising is returning to work.

Actor Paul Marcarelli played a “Test Man” for Verizon, clad in a gray jacket and horn-rimmed glasses for nearly a decade in dozens of commercials that that had him checking on the status of the telecommunications company’s technology and asking aloud, “Can you hear me now?” Chances are that anyone watching TV regularly during that era could.

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In a new 60-second commercial, “Test Man” resurfaces — working with, of all people, celebrated astronaut Buzz Aldrin. The famous space explorer takes to roaming the earth in an effort to test out the effectiveness of satellites that help boost Verizon’s network. “Can you text me now?” asks Aldrin from different locations around the world. “Hey,” says “Test Man” in space. “That’s my line.”

“Test Man” became a marketing success for Verizon for years, but flunked out after Marcarelli defected and went to work for rival Sprint in 2016 after his original employer moved on to different promotional strategies. Big advertisers spend millions on developing characters for commercials, but Marcarelli wasn’t some animated mascot, like the Green Giant or Pillsbury Doughboy, and the idea of paying him to not work for rivals may not have occurred to executives at the time. In the Sprint ad, Marcarelli said, “Hey, I’m Paul and I used to ask if you could hear me now at Verizon. Not anymore.”

The company paid homage to the character in June with a commercial that featured a different actor playing an engineer who utters the famous phrase, only to be followed by dozens of other consumers using Verizon to “play me now,” “stay with me now” and “meet me now.” The spot proved popular, according to a company spokeswoman, who notes “there were no hard feelings” about Marcarelli’s defection to a competitor.

The new spot aims to show how Verizon can defeat “dead zones” by using satellite connectivity to thwart conditions in remote areas where traditional fiber connections are not available. Based on (consumer) reception to the proposition, the commercial may also serve as a study of how to revive a popular Madison Avenue personality after a years-long absence.

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