The New Red State, Blue State Battle
This is not about Republicans and Democrats (Thank Gawd!).
It's about Verizon and AT&T, actually.
Verizon has got AT&T mad as H-E-double toothpicks over its new "There's a map for that" ad campaign.
Just see for yourself below:
Take a good long look. This ad may have a short shelf life if AT&T has its way in court. Quicker than you can download an iPhone app, AT&T has already filed a lawsuit in an Atlanta, GA Federal District court complaining that its false advertising.
We'll see if a judge makes Verizon yank the ads.
In the meantime, here's an excerpt of a leaked memo from AT&T outlining talking points for employees.
How should I respond to customers who ask about the lawsuit?
While we cannot speculate on the complaint filed, it is a great opportunity to remind customers of AT&T's many advantages that over 81 million customers enjoy, including:
Best Network The best coverage worldwide (More Bars in More PlacesTM). The nation's fastest 3G network and the only national 3G carrier providing simultaneous voice and data usage. The most devices that work in the most places including Japan and South Korea (3G 2100 MHz device required). The nation's largest wireless and wireline broadband provider. The nation's largest company-owned and operated WiFi network with more than 20,000 hotspots, including Starbucks, McDonald's and Barnes and Noble, as well as access to over 120,000 hotspots around the world. The leading provider of local and long distance voice services.Greatest Value — The fairest value with Rollover® allowing customers to keep their unused minutes month to month.
Are we getting a little prickly, AT&T.
Memo to both Verizon and AT&T. Settle your differences about the truthiness (as Stephen Colbert would say) of the Verizon ads in court. But for the sake of a partisan weary public, please pick some other colors for your branding identification other than blue and red. Especially if you're going to use it to color code a U.S. map.
Renee Oricchio is a technology writer and former supervising news producer for CNN Financial News. She has been covering the computer industry since 1987. @oricchio
Renee Oricchio is a technology writer and former supervising news producer for CNN Financial News. She has been covering the computer industry since 1987.
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