Overview
- Fastweb, which owns Vodafone Italia, sent a legal warning to Iliad demanding an immediate end to the campaign featuring model Megan Gale.
- The letter claims the ad builds on Gale’s past link to Omnitel and Vodafone and uses a red dress that Fastweb says evokes Vodafone’s brand identity.
- Fastweb alleges breaches of Italy’s advertising self-regulatory code and the civil code and calls the spot an act of unfair competition with denigrating effects on Vodafone.
- Iliad’s CEO Benedetto Levi posted the complaint on LinkedIn and replied with a message defending the campaign’s theme of change.
- The commercial shows Gale telling passersby she has decided to switch before entering an Iliad store, a move that plays on her 1999–2008 tenure as Vodafone’s iconic face, and no regulator or court has acted on the dispute so far.