Have you seen Verizon’s new television commercial comparing its nationwide 3G coverage with that of AT&T? Below is a video of the animated commercial, just in time for the holiday shopping season. Some think Verizon is out of line in directly mentioning AT&T’s coverage in its advertisements.

Check out the ad below by clicking play, if you haven’t already seen the commercial. The spots are playing in time for the 2009 holiday shopping season when many people will be shopping around for a new mobile phone for the holidays. Verizon claims to have the nation’s most reliable network (and recently launched its Droid cellular device) and AT&T has the rights to the all-popular iPhone. Full Disclosure: the author of this blog does not own an iPhone, nor does he have mobile service through Verizon or AT&T.

Even AT&T has taken umbrage with the ads claiming the ads are misleading. Lawyers for AT&T say the ads are misleading because the coverage map is inaccurate. They allege that Verizon is talking about 3G coverage but feel the majority of viewers will see the map and think there is a lack of regular coverage in the country.

Advertising and targeting your competitor is risky business, especially for a small business with limited legal resources. The ramifications could get costly and, worse, end up as a public-relations black eye depending on your chosen tactic.

Small business owners must tread carefully whenever the decision has been made to strategically target a competitor in advertising. In the case of Verizon and AT&T, the ads could be perceived as being direct, intelligent and creative. As long as Verizon is willing to put up with the possible legal ramifications (I’m not a lawyer but I fail to see how AT&T has a strong case on this one), they may very well gain from this strategy.

I’m not in favor of ripping off someone else’s creative ad strategy, but I am in favor of directly targeting your competitor to try and expose their weaknesses.

What do you think? What do you see when you view the advertisement?