High Court judge Sharise Weiner has dismissed - with costs - Cell C's application to have a pseudo-advertising banner calling it SA's most useless service provider removed, which means the banner can stay up.
According to updates on Twitter this afternoon just after 2.30pm, Weiner said the damage, if any, to Cell C's reputation, had already been done. She also said Cell C should have brought its application earlier, considering the banner threat was made on 23 October.
As for Cell C's argument that the banner constitutes defamation, the South Gauteng High Court judge said it boiled down to whether the spoof advert's content, which the banner indicated was the perception of the person behind the banner, was fair.
Twitter was abuzz with users expressing amusement at the verdict. Just after the judgment was read, spoof Telkom account, @TelkomRSA, tweeted: "@CellC loses the billboard court case. Signmakers seen rubbing their hands with glee, awaiting influx of orders from angry customers."
Court case context
Last week, peeved Cell C customer and businessman George Prokas suspended a scathing banner outside the WorldWear shopping centre in Fairland, along Johannesburg's busy Beyers Naude Drive.
The banner read "Cell C - the most useless service provider in SA", followed by the name and cellphone number of the company's Sandton City franchise manager.
On Monday, Cell C launched an urgent court application to have the banner removed, after letters of demand to remove it - sent to both Prokas and management of the WorldWear centre - were not heeded.
Two days later, the banner was "vandalised" with what appeared to be spray paint and black out, which changed the message to a positive one in support of Cell C - "Cell C - the most useful service provider in SA" followed by "we love cell c" in large white lettering.
Banner brawl
The case was heard in the South Gauteng High Court yesterday, where Cell C reportedly argued the banner was "defamatory to the point of unlawfulness".
According to the South African Press Organisation (SAPA), the dispute arose from a phone Prokas got for his son with Cell C last year. Apparently the phone's number turned out to belong to someone else, who was active on the SIM.
That individual reportedly ran up a bill of about R5 700, by which time Prokas had ended the stop-order for the phone, in October 2013. SAPA says, however, when Prokas tried to purchase a car earlier this year, he was blacklisted because of the unpaid bill.
"He sought to have the bill waived by Cell C and removed from the bad debtors list by the end of October this year. However, the situation had not changed [by then]."
The peeved businessman and customer reportedly exchanged a number of e-mails with Cell C, indicating he would put the banner up unless his complaints were dealt with.
SAPA says the banner cost Prokas R61 200 to make and put up - an amount he now wants Cell C to pay him back.
'Weak' response
Throughout the past week, Cell C has remained largely mum on the issue, apart from a brief statement on Monday confirming it had taken legal action.
Many consumers have lauded Prokas for the move, expressing admiration for his action on Twitter.
Meanwhile, some members of the public have slated the company on social media for choosing court action over resolving the issue that pushed its customer to take the drastic action in the first place. Creative director in advertising, Suhana Gordhan, writes in today's Business Day, "Cell C could have turned a moan into a tribute".
She says a brand's response to negative publicity is crucial. "The billboard began a game of brand-and-consumer tennis and, right now, the consumer is leading six-love."
Cell C missed an opportunity to turn a negative into a positive and to serve an ace with a genuine response, writes Gordhan, rather than the "weak" Twitter response that read: "We can confirm that there is a dispute between Cell C and the customer responsible for the banner. We are attempting to resolve the matter."
One of the most powerful forms of advertising is exceptional customer service, she notes.
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