AT&T Services, Inc. (“AT&T”) made
“best possible” claims in its online blog when it
announced its new Wi-Fi technologies. In a recent proceeding,
the National Advertising Division (the “NAD”),
considered Comcast Cable Communications, LLC's
(“Comcast”) challenged that AT&T's claims
were false because AT&T did not provide the “best
possible Wi-Fi- experience” in the marketplace.
AT&T argued that its claims conveyed a substantiated
self-referential message and not a comparative one.
The issue before the NAD was to determine whether
AT&T's “best possible” claims conveyed a
self-referential or comparative message. In making this
determination, the NAD “looks not only at the literal
language used in the claim, but also the context in which the claim
appears.” This is because as the NAD, explained,
“[w]ords that often convey comparative messages, such as
‘superior,' ‘ultimate,' or even ‘best
possible' may convey other messages when used in certain
contexts.”
