This star-studded T-Mobile commercial advertising a free iPhone deal may need to go away soon
Do you want a free iPhone 16 Pro this holiday season? T-Mobile can make that happen... with a bunch of asterisks and convoluted special requirements. Do you want to save big on your wireless bill month after month compared to the "other big guys?" Magenta can also set such an arrangement up for you, but only if you meet several (other) conditions.
None of that should come as a surprise to an experienced bargain hunter, but just because we've all gotten used to questioning every bombastic marketing claim made by America's top mobile network operators and carefully reading the fine print before getting any "free" phone or hugely discounted new line of service, that doesn't make misleading ads okay.
One such T-Mo commercial, ironically challenged by AT&T, could be discontinued or modified soon following the National Advertising Division's recent recommendation. After an expedited analysis process called Fast-Track SWIFT, the NAD essentially ruled that Magenta failed to "properly" explain and list all the conditions of two separate claims lumped together in a short but star-studded 38-second ad titled "Top Three Plays of the Day."
This is not particularly elaborate or even especially entertaining, but given the presence of Twitch influencer Kai Cenat, three-time Super Bowl champion Patrick Mahomes, and rap music icon Snoop Dogg in it, I'm ready to bet its budget was pretty staggering. As such, T-Mobile is predictably not willing to give it up without a fight, instead planning to appeal the NAD's decision to the National Advertising Review Board (NARB).
If history is any indication, there's a very good chance that course of action will not change the outcome of this case, which seems pretty clear-cut anyway. It's incredibly confusing to throw "iPhone 16 Pro ON US" and 20 percent family savings claims at a "normal" viewer within two seconds without explaining the individual terms of each deal and clarifying that those are in fact two different promotions.
That shouldn't be controversial, and frankly, I'm a little disappointed in T-Mo for choosing to fight what looks like a losing and morally wrong battle. Then again, both AT&T and Verizon have found themselves in extremely similar positions a number of times in the past, and something tells me that's going to happen many more times in the future, especially with the NAD, NARB, and the BBB National Program in general unable to hand out sanctions of any sort for these types of advertising shenanigans.
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Things that are NOT allowed: