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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- -- Julia "Butterfly" Hill, who lived in a tree for more than two years to protest the logging of old-growth redwoods, is going to court over an magazine ad that she says mocks her.
The ad resembles widely published photos taken as Hill lived on a platform in the 1,000-year-old redwood, according to a federal lawsuit filed last Thursday against AT&T Corp., OmniSky Corp. and advertising agency TBWA Chiat/Day.
The woman in the ad, however, is holding a small OmniSky wireless Internet device. A man at the base of the tree holds two large buckets and is looking up a rope ladder. A logo on his jacket reads sponge-bath.com.
"That she, who had endured severe physical, mental and spiritual challenges and risked her life in support of her efforts to save old growth forests, would use a wireless Internet and e-mail service to call a man to bathe her and would endorse defendants' products in a commercial advertisement was way beyond comprehension," Hill's lawyer, Ina J. Risman of San Francisco, wrote in court papers.
Hill, 26, was traveling Tuesday and was unavailable for comment. She descended the redwood in December after Pacific Lumber Co. agreed to spare it and create a 2.9-mile buffer zone around it in Humboldt County, about 300 miles north of San Francisco.
AT&T spokeswoman Kathi Oram said the communication giant was not involved in the ad, which appeared in national publications including Martha Stewart Living, Men's Journal, Newsweek and Vanity Fair. Palo Alto-based OmniSky uses AT&T's wireless network to offer wireless Internet service, Oram said.
OmniSky recently discontinued the advertisements, which appeared briefly in the spring, company spokeswoman Amanda Higgins said. She declined further comment.
Lawyers for TBWA Chiat/Day did not return calls
