AT&T and T-Mobile’s feud continues as the Un-Carrier fires back

The battle between AT&T and T-Mobile continues, as the latter has released a new ad poking fun at AT&T. The ad aired on live TV over the weekend, though T-Mobile provided us a copy (above). Billy Bob Thornton is back once again, this time defending the Un-Carrier and what it says are unfounded claims about its performance.

Before we get to the video, let’s talk about the fight that led here. This all started about a month ago when AT&T released an ad featuring Luke Wilson that made claims against the Un-Carrier for what it called “Un-Truths.” T-Mobile responded quickly, alleging that AT&T used material from the BBB National Programs’ National Advertising Division (NAD) to call out T-Mobile.

Why does this matter? T-Mobile says AT&T’s ad violates the NAD’s policies, which state that advertisers should “not mischaracterize any decision, abstract or press release issued or use and/or disseminate such decision, abstract or press release for advertising and/or promotional purposes.” AT&T was forced to take the ad campaign down as a result, though the carrier said the fight wasn’t over and that it was willing to take the matter to court.

Not willing to let AT&T’s attack go unanswered, T-Mobile’s new ad features Billy Bob Thornton driving while talking about a friend who says he used to have T-Mobile’s network and “it sucked.” Thornton goes on to say that many things used to suck, like the giant, “frozen lasagna”-sized phones of the past. The ad argues that times change, and that T-Mobile now has the best network by “like, a lot.” The video ends with a direct swipe at AT&T’s earlier ad as well.

It’s clear that the race between the big three carriers has become more aggressive recently, as all three respond to a shifting landscape where prepaid is growing and postpaid is slowing or even declining, at least in Verizon’s case. What remains to be seen is whether AT&T will respond to this ad, or whether the arguably petty back-and-forth will fizzle out sooner rather than later.