Advertise Strengths Without Disparaging the Competition

Economic downturns tend to produce an increase in comparative advertising campaigns. Meager sales revenues make it tempting to aggressively target the competitor's business. Consumers enjoy watching advertisers take potshots at each other. But a competitor whose weaknesses are targeted — not so much. A competitor can choose to respond in kind or legally challenge the ad. If the ad message is truthful and does not mislead or deceive consumers, then the challenge is generally not difficult to rebuff. A recent court opinion suggests that advertisers whose ads are challenged by competitors should look to commercial liability policies for advertising injury coverage. It may be possible to cover legal fees for defending ads challenged by competitors.

  
This recession has produced several memorable comparative ad campaigns. Apple's ad campaign personifying Microsoft and Apple computers was answered by Microsoft's "I'm a PC" spot, to which Apple responded with its "Bean Counter" spot. A soup war is raging between Campbell's and Progresso as to who has the healthiest soups. The opening salvo in the soup war began with a Campbell's print ad depicting a can of Progresso Chicken Noodle under the label "Made With MSG" soup next to a can of Campbell's Select Harvest Chicken Noodle soup under the label "made with TLC." Progresso responded with an ad depicting numerous Campbell's soup cans under the headline "Campbell's has 95 soups made with MSG." Neither the Apple-PC ads nor the Soup War ads have resulted in court action — possibly because these advertisers skillfully employ truthful statements mixed with puffery.

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