In October 2023, Laura Brett, vice president of the Council of Better Business Bureau National Programs’ National Advertising Division (NAD), was considering Case No. 7212—T-Mobile US, Inc. (T-Mobile) vs. Comcast Cable Communications, LLC (Comcast). It was a high-profile advertising contest between the giants: T-Mobile, the country’s second-largest wireless service provider, alleged that Comcast, the broadcasting and cable TV leader, made false and misleading claims with its “Xfinity 10G Network” advertising campaign. The ads hit the public’s consciousness in February 2023. Both companies counted on the NAD, the advertising industry’s self-regulatory body, to quickly resolve disputes that dealt with truth in advertising. If the NAD found that Comcast could not support the challenged claims, Comcast would have to make costly changes to its advertising plan. Yet were T-Mobile’s claims enough to disrupt Comcast’s Xfinity 10G launch while inserting the NAD into the market-share battle between two telecommunications giants?

This field-based case offers an overview of the dispute-resolution process of the self-regulatory bodies for US advertising: the NAD and the National Advertising Review Board (NARB), focusing on this telecommunications case. At the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, this case is taught in the second-year “Corporate Strategy” elective.