A comparative advertising “dogfight” (or better frog v. goat fight) has been raging the past two months in Greek television. Two major mobile telephony providers WIND and Cosmote have been battling over the pre-paid card mobile telephony market in Greece in a not so polite manner. Cosmote opened fire against WIND’s card mobile telephony brand “Q” asserting that its IQ is that of a goat! (“IQ katiskiou” in Greek, the rhyme being the obvious reason behind the choice of animal) bringing forth comparative data on the respective services costs. The words came out of a frog’s mouth – “frog” being Cosmote’s low cost card mobile telephony brand. Soon enough, Q replied in a new ad, stating that the “stupid things come out of the frog’s mouth”. The dispute came before the Communication Review Council (CRC), a private body set up by the Greek advertising industry in order to arbitrate this sort of disputes, whose decisions are generally complied with, though not legally binding. Responding to an application by WIND, the CRC has held that the “IQ katiskiou” ad is degrading to a rival brand and, thus, should be withdrawn. Cosmote is expected to file an analogous and equally successful application, in connection with WIND’s reply ad.

Unfortunately, the CRC does not seem to mind that most of the mobile telephony ads are blatantly misleading, full of hidden charges in asterisks and small letters.

On frogs here and on their rival goats here and here.