3:00 PM -- Telecom giants AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) and Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) have figured out that the best way to sell to a family is to appeal to its impressionable child. The Hartford Courant reports:

So... A stranger lures in your children by showing them what's inside the cool truck. Ah, a parent's dream! Sign me up for U-verse, stat!

Similarly, Verizon recently came out with a commercial for FiOS that shows an inquisitive child alone on a sidewalk, complimenting the FiOS rep on his "nice truck."

Thus, from AT&T and Verizon we gather the following moral: Children, forget all you have learned about strangers in trucks... so long as they are harboring telecom services and ice cream and not puppies and candy.

— Red Panda, "I Know My First Name Is Steven," Light Reading