Brand identity crises seem to be all the rage these days—Sprint's joining the party by all but dropping the Nextel name and adopting the all-too-easy slogan of "Sprint Ahead." The focus of the new marketing campaign, which starts July 1, will be on its data services and network speed.

Chalk it up to what you will—lagging quarters, brand confusion or the iPhone launch, all of which were tossed out by analysts as reasons for the change-up—mourners of the Nextel brand will number far fewer than Jack's bereaved, to be sure. After all, when was the last time you actually said (or heard) SprintNextel? Exactly.

Sprint Ad Campaign Leaves Nextel's Name in the Dust [WaPo via MocoNews]
Sprint Nextel revamps ads to focus on speed, data [Reuters]

Contact information for this author is not available.