More on that Atrocious Lawyer Ad [Updated]

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Seriously!

Sorry, I should be more specific—this is the atrocious lawyer ad I mentioned last week that featured the appallingly stereotypical depiction of a Chinese person. See "No, I Don't See Anything Wrong With This Lawyer Ad. Why Do You Ask?" (Nov. 26, 2013). The law firm and production company involved are pointing fingers, and the law firm is getting the better of that contest, I think.

The firm named in the advertisement, McCutcheon & Hamner, P.C., quickly posted a comment on its Facebook page saying that the firm's YouTube channel had been "hacked" and that it "did not approve the latest advertising commercial" created by Definitive Television. That is a little ambiguous, but as I noted last week, there did not seem to be any evidence that the firm had any connection with the thing, which the production company could have created as a promo spot for itself, for all we know. Although how it got onto the firm's YouTube channel remains a mystery for now.

On Monday, December 2, Above the Law received a statement from Definitive Television saying that it knew nothing about any "hacking" and denying any involvement with the law firm's YouTube account. (The statement showed more evidence of literacy than the YouTube comments I mentioned last week, but not much more.) Definitive Television went on to accuse ATL of libel (which is highly doubtful complete bullshit) and said ATL's criticism of the video was itself racist (which is just baffling).

Later that same day, ATL got a statement from McCutcheon & Hamner saying that it had reviewed its financial records and had confirmed that neither it nor anyone associated with it had paid for or authorized the offensive video. The firm said it sent Definitive Television a cease-and-desist letter, that DT had refused to desist, and that the firm was considering its legal options.

I guess the one thing I can say for sure at this point is that the television Definitive Television creates is definitely terrible television. If you thought it wasn't possible to lower the bar for lawyer advertising, of all things, boy were you wrong.

Update to this update: A great post on this over at Popehat, where Ken explains that Definitive TV's legal threat is "complete bullshit" and why that is so, and notes accurately that the Definitive TV guy writes a little like a Nigerian email scammer.