It’s not clear who can be declared the winner in the advertising battle between AT&T and Verizon. The two rivals have been throwing punches at each other since last Fall. Verizon threw the first blow when it mocked AT&T’s “There’s an app for that.” claims aimed at the iPhone’s 3G coverage. The war has even resulted in various lawsuits where each claimed the other of lying and misinforming consumers in their commercials. TechViShow did a great job at recapping the battle during the legal turmoil. The battle turned ugly when Verizon compared the iPhone during it’s holiday promo to a “misfit toy.” AT&T then hired Luke Wilson as their spokesperson and shifted it’s advertising focus to directly challenge Verizon and aim it at setting the record straight.

During the entire ordeal, neither one claimed customers from the other. What did occur was an increase in subscribers from other networks. “Both their numbers were still pretty good,” Golvin said of Verizon and AT&T. “They were taking a lot of share away from T-Mobile and Sprint and probably not so much away from each other. I think neither one of them came out ahead.” Charles Golvin is a principal analyst at Forrester Research, in San Francisco. APP.com states in a marketing truism: never attack your opponent by name because it can turn customers off to you and the entire industry.”Negative advertising that calls out rivals is rare, outside of political advertisements, because people simply don’t like it”, said David Aaker, vice chairman of Prophet, a branding and marketing group. It turns the attention from your products and services into a quarrel that can be compared to toddlers fighting over who has on the best clothes and shoes.

Recently, AT&T has decided to shift it’s focus, surprisingly, into an entirely different marketing and advertising direction with it’s  “Rethink Possible” campaign. It encourages consumers to think of the impossible and how it can be possible with AT&T services. It highlights their multitasking ability to talk and surf the web simultaneously as well as the ability to watch recorded programming on multiple televisions in your household.  They have also made sure to mention that they are the Nation’s “fastest” 3G network in their recent mobile services ads.

Have the two networks called it a truce or is the dust settling as each provider revs up ammunition for the next battle? Only time will tell.

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