Commentary

AT&T Knows When To Give Up

by Mark Walsh , December 2, 2009

Verizon's

AT&T has finally made a smart strategic move in its ad war with Verizon Wireless, dropping its lawsuit against the rival wireless giant over its "There's A Map For That" campaign.

AT&T formally dismissed the suit Wednesday after a federal court last month denied its request to stop Verizon from running the spots comparing AT&T's 3G coverage unfavorably to its own. AT&T had complained the ads featuring side-by-side blue and red maps misled consumers by implying the carrier offered no coverage at all in uncolored areas.

AT&T had never disputed the accuracy of how the maps depicted the two carriers' respective 3G coverage areas.

Instead of pressing ahead with a scheduled preliminary injunction hearing on Dec. 16, it appears AT&T has opted to trade blows with Verizon through advertising instead of court. As soon as AT&T lost its motion for a temporary restraining order against Verizon last month, kicked off its new campaign featuring Luke Wilson telling everyone why AT&T is better than Verizon. (Mostly because of its exclusive deal for the iPhone.)

Instead of wasting resources on a risky legal strategy to block Verizon, better for AT&T to respond to Verizon's advertising assault in kind. Better yet, AT&T could shift more resources to upgrading and expanding its 3G network so Verizon wouldn't have so much raw material to build snarky ad campaigns around.

Another idea would be to use its ads to acknowledge problems its had meeting data demand from the iPhone and explaing steps its taking to upgrade and expand its network. That would truly demonstrate a devotion to truth in advertising.

mobile, telecom

2 comments about "AT&T Knows When To Give Up".

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Heather Blair from SNAPe Media, December 2, 2009 at 6:35 p.m.
funny I have been watching the Luke Wilson ads with confusion as to what's happened to his HOT looks? (does anybody agree he aint the LUKE we saw in Legally Blonde???)I suspected this was a tit for tat campaign... but love the idea or notion--a better advertising strategy would be to focus on letting customers know they are taking steps to improve their 3G network...
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David Sutula from 'peeps creative, December 3, 2009 at 8:06 a.m.

Not sure that the exclusivity of the iPhone is the hook that AT&T should hang their hat on. First, it's common wisdom that Apple will make the iPhone more ubiquitously available once the contract expires. Second, the people who were going to switch already have by and large. Everyone who still fiends for the device will likely wait out the contract to see what happens. Third (although 3G coverage in my area is nearly perfect) the 3G coverage is abysmal in most areas and people already know that. (Try getting a decent signal in NYC or San Francisco). Oddly, the worst pla e I have ever visited in terms of 3G AT&T coverage (other than the high desert outside of Phoenix) is Cupertino, California (the home of Apple Computers for those of you in Motorola Razr land). Even regular coverage is shit there. I actually had to use a payphone outside of a Starbucks there to make a call one day.

(FULL DISCLOSURE: I HAVE AN IPHONE, LOVE IT AND SWITCHED FROM VERIZON TO GET ONE. BUT I WILL PAY THE CONTRACT EARLY-OUT FEES TO GO BCK ONCE THERE IS A NON-JAILBREAK WAY OF SWITCHING.)