Is this Public Relations?

In the spirit of college football rivalry week, I felt it necessary to recognize a well-known business rivalry that has been going on for years, AT&T and Verizon. The recent battle between the two wireless companies has been ignited by Verizon’s new 3G coverage advertising campaign, “There’s a map for that,” a play off of Apple’s Inc’s ads, “There’s an app for that.” Verizon launched the campaign through commercials that highlighted how its fast, 3G network has wider coverage than AT&T’s 3G system. Lastly, throwing in that Verizon has 5 times the coverage as the number two wireless company, AT&T.

AT&T sued Verizon over the “map” ads, not because they were untrue, but instead because AT&T felt there was a danger that viewers could become confused into thinking that AT&T had no coverage where it didn’t have 3G coverage. A judge disagreed with this argument and refused to force Verizon to pull the ads causing AT&T to make the next attack of this battle.

AT&T began a new commercial campaign starring Luke Wilson that made claims that AT&T has “The nation’s fastest 3G network.” In the wireless world, speed tests are very tricky and often depend on how many people in the area are accessing at the same time. The ad doesn’t use any sources or figures and while Mark Siegel, AT&T spokesman says the claim is made on extensive testing the company still isn’t providing the details that would prove this. The commercial also fronts that with AT&T it’s possible to talk and surf at the same time, claims that AT&T “has the most popular smart phones,” and “access to over 100,000 apps.”

So, Is this public relations? I would most definitely say this is public relations. Whether I would say it’s good or bad PR is a different story. Comparative Advertising is always tricky and in some ways can do more harm to your product than good because it can give the competitor product advertisement just as well as your own product. I think that Verizon’s ad was a great use of comparative advertising. It only makes the comparison to AT&T once at the end of the commercial after it has shown you what it wants you to know. Now, on the other hand, with AT&T’s advertisement, I’m not convinced they took the necessary time and research needed for an effective rebuttal ad. It also is not good public relations for the company when the lawsuit confirms Verizon’s ad by pointing out that AT&T does have less 3G coverage than Verizon.