Deceptive Advertising? There's a Lawsuit for That.

Only about a month after a Verizon ad (see video below) first aired during Monday Night Football, AT&T filed a lawsuit claiming that their competitor's not-so-thinly-veiled jabs at AT&T's cellular coverage were misleading to the point of deceptive trade practice.

(video link -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37NKnDRPFKU&feature=player_embedded

The ad parodied the popular "There's an App for That" iPhone commercial by pointing out that if you're wondering why some people have better cell phone coverage than others, "there's a map for that." The ad included images of maps of the United States with highlighted areas denoting 3G ("third generation") network coverage – red for Verizon and blue for AT&T. The vast amount of white space amidst the blue dots was intended to show that AT&T had inferior coverage.

AT&T's complaint was not that the maps were inaccurate, but that they implied that customers would be "out of touch" completely in the blank areas, which is not the case, as their normal cellular service is available even where 3G coverage is not.

However, an Atlanta federal judge apparently disagreed with this assessment, stating that he found no evidence of inaccuracy in the ads, and subsequently denied the request for an injunction that would halt the ads.

The issue here was one of perception, which is always tricky to prove legally - but of course, perception can be everything when it comes to branding, especially during the holiday shopping season. AT&T does have another shot in a hearing set for December 16, but stopping the ads at that point may be too late for any damage done. With Black Friday just a short time ago, Verizon has even rolled out another ad that gets into the holiday spirit – depicting the iPhone as the newest inhabitant of the island of misfit toys, thanks to that same spotty 3G map.

So were consumers really confused by the ad, or is Verizon right in claiming that AT&T is just litigating because "the truth hurts"? Considering the popularity of the iPhone for the past few holiday seasons, the answer might be in both companies' bottom lines come January.