You know the funny ads that Verizon Wireless has been running at AT&T's expense? The ads show AT&T's 3G coverage and compare it to Verizon Wireless's 3G coverage. The punchline of the commercial is "There's a Map for That", which riffs on Apple's "There's An App for That" ad campaign. Well, AT&T doesn't think the commercials are funny, and sued.Poor AT&T. It's been a punching bag lately, no doubt. The "There's a Map for That" ad campaign has attacked AT&T's 3G coverage furiously. It shows two different consumers using phones and suggests that perhaps the best way to choose a phone is to make sure it has a good network behind it.

During the course of the ad, Verizon shows a map of AT&T's 3G coverage and compares it directly to a map of Verizon's 3G coverage. AT&T's 3G coverage map is clearly smaller than Verizon Wireless', with huge gaps all over the place indicating where AT&T doesn't provide 3G service yet.

...And that's the crux of the matter.

Even though Verizon also shows a map with white gaps where it doesn't have 3G service, AT&T thinks that the maps falsely leads consumers to believe that AT&T provides no coverage in the areas that are blank. In reality, AT&T's EDGE network serves most of those regions quite well.

AT&T asked Verizon to change the ads, and Verizon made a minor adjustment. Whatever Verizon Wireless changed, it wasn't enough to appease AT&T, which filed a lawsuit over the whole thing.

AT&T claims, "In essence, we believe the ads mislead consumers into believing that AT&T doesn't offer ANY wireless service in the vast majority of the country. In fact, AT&T's wireless network blankets the US, reaching approximately 296M people. Additionally, our 3G service is available in over 9,600 cities and towns. Verizon's misleading advertising tactics appear to be a response to AT&T's strong leadership in smartphones. We have twice the number of smartphone customers... and we've beaten them two quarters in a row on net post-paid subscribers. We also had lower churn -- a sign that customers are quite happy with the service they receive."

Verizon Wireless hasn't responded publicly to the lawsuit.

[via Wall Street Journal]