Verizon Tells Comcast to ‘Cease and Desist’

Advertising in today’s competitive environment can be entertaining and unfortunately, at times, deceitful. We get a real kick out of service providers who portray themselves as offering FTTH when they actually don’t. In a sign of the times, telecompetitors are increasingly contesting each other’s ads, often times ending up in court. The latest dust-up comes from Verizon who sent a ‘cease and desist’ letter to Comcast over Comcast’s recent ‘Don’t Fall for FiOS‘ ad campaign.

Among other claims, Verizon believes Comcast is being deceitful in these ads regarding Comcast’s better HD content choices. In the ads, Comcast suggests that Verizon offers less HD programming and fills their HD VOD library with useless ‘how to’ ads. Verizon responds in their policy blog, “For Comcast to quibble numbers on this scale is a real sign of competitive desperation.” Ouch. It gets better. Comcast told the Philadelphia Inquirer “Verizon’s been running a negative campaign against Comcast for years and its response to our campaign shows that they can dish it out but they can’t take it.” Is this a couple of multi-billion dollar communications conglomerates or my two quibbling young kids?

Verizon is asking Comcast to correct the ads. If Comcast respectfully declines, Verizon will “challenge the advertisements’ truthfulness through the National Advertising Division of the Councils of Better Business Bureaus,” Verizon vice president Eric Rabe tells the Philadelphia Inquirer.