Know what was a terrible marketing move for Chrysler? Having DaimlerChrysler's German CEO Dieter Zetsche play "Dr. Z" in its ads. When the ad campaign (which celebrated the merging of American and German engineering) aired, sales and market share plummeted. It was an embarrassment for the agency behind it, BBDO Detroit, who thought it could hone the success of making household names of Dave Thomas, Orville Redenbacher, and even Chrysler's own Lee Iacocca. They couldn't.

And Sprint didn't get the memo.

They've enlisted CEO Dan Hess, who's only been on the job since December, to star in its new TV campaign promoting it's $99.99 unlimited everything service plan. The ad is black-and-white; this tells viewers "the decision to switch to Sprint is obvious."

After the jump, a few of those terrible Dr. Z ads.