NEW YORK, Feb. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Celebrated filmmaker Michael Bay will be the first celebrity featured in a new advertising campaign for Verizon FiOS TV and FiOS Internet services. Themed "This is FiOS; This is Big," the new campaign -- created for Verizon by McCann Erickson, New York -- showcases the groundbreaking services delivered over Verizon's advanced fiber-optic network straight to customers' homes.

"Michael Bay is a larger-than-life figure because he's a powerful game-changer," said John Wimsatt, senior vice president of marketing for Verizon Telecom. "Verizon FiOS is the best and first choice for home entertainment because the power of our fiber-optic network delivers the best picture quality, fastest Internet and most-innovative interactive services. Michael Bay is the perfect choice to help portray the big, powerful experiences that FiOS creates in home entertainment and broadband."

Bay -- who is famous for directing cutting-edge, high-octane blockbusters like "Transformers," "Pearl Harbor," "Bad Boys" and "Armageddon" -- stars in an action-packed, 30-second TV spot for Verizon FiOS Internet service that begins airing Sunday (Feb. 17). In the ad, Bay deftly spoofs his own super-charged Hollywood persona as he blows up things throughout a super-contemporary home to show how Verizon "blows away" cable Internet service with upload and download speeds that are up to 25 times faster. While a Verizon technician installs FiOS Internet service in the home, Bay uses a remote detonator to blow up a barbecue grill and swimming pool. He also shows off his pet cat -- a Bengal tiger -- and a 20-foot-tall Transformer to underscore how "awesome" -- a word he continuously repeats -- he finds the Verizon fiber-optic technology.