SubscribeA federal judge Wednesday ruled that Verizon Wireless can continue to run its 3G network ads, suggesting they might be “sneaky,” but are not misleading. U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Batten Sr. told AT&T’s attorneys that their request for a temporary restraining order was denied, but the judge indicated he will hear new arguments in a second hearing on December 16.
AT&T claimed that Verizon’s “There’s a Map for That” ad campaign mislead consumers into believing AT&T provided no service in vast areas of the country because Verizon’s ads depicted non 3G service areas in white, a color that traditionally represents “no service” on many cell phone coverage maps.
Judge Batten said people casually viewing the ads might misunderstand the commercials, but a viewer’s misinterpretation “doesn’t mean they’re misleading.”
“Most people who are watching TV are semi-catatonic,” he said, prompting laughter from the courtroom. “They’re not fully alive.”
AT&T’s apparent backup plan is a new ad of its own, attacking Verizon Wireless with… Luke Wilson.
http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/ATT Ad Luke Wilson.flvActor Luke Wilson helps AT&T Mobility fire back at Verizon Wireless as the holiday season approaches. (30 seconds)
The effectiveness of Wilson’s spirited defense of AT&T is debatable, judging from early ad reviews. We spotted one continuity error straight away. At the 0:15 second mark, notice the “Access to over 100,000 apps” box is already filled with an “x” before Wilson turns to the board to fill it. The “x” is there before it’s gone and back again. Perhaps it’s an unintentional homage to the frustration experienced by AT&T-exclusive iPhone application developers not getting approval for applications previously approved.
Other stories of interest:
- Adding Insult to Injury: Verizon Wireless Further Pummels AT&T in New Round of Holiday Ads
- Verizon Wireless Introducing Prepaid Wireless Broadband, But Get Your Wallet: $15 A Day For 75 Megabytes
- The “Competitive” Wireless Industry At Work: Verizon Wireless Doubling Early Termination Fee – Up to $350 to Get Out
- Verizon Wireless & Google Announce Open Platform Strategic Alliance, AT&T Reverses Course on Blocking Voice Over IP
- Cablevision-owned ‘Newsday’ Rejects Verizon FiOS Ads – Another Argument for Net Neutrality?
Who is Luke Wilson…isn’t he just the brother of the guy who was in those 2 movies with Jackie Chan? Has he even been in any movies himself? If this article hadn’t given me his name, I wouldn’t have known it was anyone, but just some person doing this commercial. I wonder how much the customers really pay for this junk? How much did he cost, and how much does the ad cost, and how far would that money have gone to upgrade services and repair things? But I always ask these questions when I see a commercial or ad and notice prices increase around the time of the ads. I don’t buy product that have me pay for their advertising. Then again I haven’t used AT&T since I last had a land-line. Rather than all those “apps for this and that” where is the app that lets you call anyone in the US from anywhere in the US. I would think a mobile phone that is mobile would be the prime app needed, but still don’t see that kind of service from anyone. One bedroom in my house cannot get signal from Verizon.
This is just so silly and stupid. When will people again compete with quality services, rather than a multitude of broken services?
Luke Wilson has gained a lot of weight…I wonder if it’s for a movie?
@waiting and watching – Luke Wilson was the lead role in Idiocracy and My Super Ex-Girlfriend. The former was watchable.
Back to the topic at hand, this is hardly a rally against Verizon’s “there’s a map for that” ads. While Verizon really flubbed (in my opinion) the first Droid ads knocking the iPhone the “map” ads do make a good point – 3G network coverage is what today’s smartphone users want, nay..need. What good is having the most popular smartphones if your network data speed is going to be sluggish in most of the U.S.?
I should state that I use Sprint and Android so I’m not really in this battle, but 4G phones are slated to arrive soon and it’s no longer sufficient to say you have data coverage if it’s not at least 3G. AT&T has also had a history of capacity issues particularly during iPhone launches when everyone runs out, buys a phone, and tries to jump on the 3G network to do fun and cool stuff like surf the web or stream Pandora on their phones.
In a small twist of irony, AT&T is only the fastest network when you’re on their 3G network which is of course very limited and the point of Verizon’s ads. The only real point this ad makes is that AT&T and the GSM network allows you to talk and use data at the same time – Verizon and Sprint (CDMA networks) necessarily drop out of 3G mode to 1x mode for voice and text. You can still access data while talking it’s just a lot slower.
Verizon: 1
AT&T: 0
Actually, Luke Wilson has been in quite a few appearances (45 by IMDB’s count) . Some were great like Idiocracy (very underrated movie, in my opinion) and The Royal Temenbaums. He was also on quite a few episodes of That 70′s Show. Personally, Owen’s the one I can never remember the name of. I always think of Luke Wilson when I see him.