A panel of the National Advertising Review Board (NARB), the appellate advertising body of BBB National Programs, recommended that AT&T Services, Inc. discontinue or modify the claim that Supplemental Coverage from Space (SCS) is currently available to AT&T consumers. The panel was chaired by Scott Hamula, professor in the Advertising, Public Relations, and Marketing Communications program at Ithaca College.
The advertising at issue had been challenged by T-Mobile US, Inc. before BBB National Programs’ National Advertising Division (NAD) as part of NAD’s Fast-Track SWIFT expedited challenge process, designed for single-issue advertising cases. Following NAD’s decision (Case No. 7335), AT&T appealed NAD’s recommendations.
It was not disputed that AT&T does not currently offer SCS coverage to its cellular customers. In agreeing with NAD, the NARB panel concluded that one reasonable message conveyed by AT&T’s “Epic Bad Golf Day” commercial (which shows an AT&T cellular call connecting through a satellite relay and displays the visual “making satellite connection”) is that SCS technology is currently available to customers of AT&T’s mobile service.
Therefore, the NARB panel recommended that AT&T discontinue the claim that SCS service is presently available to consumers or modify the claim to clearly and conspicuously communicate that SCS is not available at this time.
The NARB panel noted that nothing in its decision precludes AT&T from making truthful and non-misleading aspirational claims about SCS.
AT&T stated that although the company respectfully disagrees with “NARB’s conclusion recommending that the commercial be discontinued or modified,” it “supports NARB’s self-regulatory process and will comply with NARB’s decision.”
About the National Advertising Review Board (NARB): The National Advertising Review Board (NARB) is the appellate body for BBB National Programs’ advertising self-regulatory programs. NARB’s panel members include 85 distinguished volunteer professionals from the national advertising industry, agencies, and public members, such as academics and former members of the public sector. NARB serves as a layer of independent industry peer review that helps engender trust and compliance in NAD, CARU, and DSSRC matters.
