Happy Friday, everyone!
Here is this week's poll question:
How do you write ads for Super Bowl related sales and activities, without actually using the term "Super Bowl" in the ads?
Looking forward to reading your replies! (And as always, we encourage you to share your ads with us, in either written or audio form -- thank you!)
I have done a bunch of these over the years. One of the ones I liked best was the old "announcer and producer" ad... the kind where the producer comes in in the intercom type voice". The announcer kept saying Super Bowl and getting bleeped each time, and the producer would come in and say "Hey you know you cannot say .... and HE gets bleeped for saying it". What follows is how they go back and forth trying to say it without the beep coming in... some "how do they do that" on the bleeps... and finally the name of the bar. Here is one line I remember from the ad:
...okay so I can't say <beep> right? right.... Okay well what if I wanted everyone to come in and get a BOWL of our Super chili... ah ha no beep!... so come into Bad Dogs for the Sunday and ask for the chilli... make sure you order the <beep>... darn!
How about "Super Sunday Football"
You can use phrases like "Big Game" or the "Biggest Game in Football" I also like "Championship Game"
This is some of crap that is wrong with the world we live in today...
We won't use the term Super Bowl...
I am all for protecting ones trademark, but in my opinion the courts have decided in favor of big money and influence on this. In the rest of the trademark world, other uses, not in similar trade are ok.
If it's not Super Bowl Sunday, what is it? "The BIG GAME Sunday" ... please!
McDonalds name is trademarked... Following the same legal victory logic, we should also be forbidden from advertising a tire store and saying, "the tire store located next to McDonalds."
It's preposterous!
Don't think you could get into trouble saying a "super bowl of chili," either. In fact, all meals-in-a-bowl could be described this way.
Our super bowl of homemade chili....our super bowl of homemade soup-of-the day....
Our super bowl of garden-fresh salad...and for dessert, our super bowl of homemade ice cream...
A local grocery store is having a 12th Man Sale ("12th man" referring to Seattle Seahawks fans) - 12 specials at $12, with eye-catching in-store displays and signage, employees wearing Seahawks jerseys or t-shirts, etc. - featuring items appropriate for Super Bowl parties.
We're rotating 4 spots, substituting various sound effects for the word "bowl." My favorite is the last sound effect used in the example below - the sound of a bowling ball as it hits the ten pins; upon hearing it, the mind can't help but fill in the word "bowl."
Randy, I agree wholeheartedly, and your McDonald's illustration is spot-on.
Prior to writing ads for a local client's Super Bowl Sale, I spent a fair bit of time online reading various posts from lawyers and marketers on the subject. I was surprised to learn that the NFL prohibits not only the use of "Super Bowl" and "Super Sunday," but also the names of NFL teams, e.g., "Seattle Seahawks," in any advertising, unless you're an official sponsor and have paid to license the use of these terms.
In this article the writer obviously sides with us on this and seems to imply that we should just take advantage of what's called the nominative use exception, when he states:
Basically, the game is called the Super Bowl, and calling it that isn't trademark infringement, so long as you don't imply that you're an official sponsor or otherwise officially associated with the game.
The nominative use test essentially states that one party may use or refer to the trademark of another if:
- The product or service cannot be readily identified without using the trademark (e.g. trademark is descriptive of a person, place, or product attribute).
- The user only uses as much of the mark as is necessary for the identification (e.g. the words but not the font or symbol).
- The user does nothing to suggest sponsorship or endorsement by the trademark holder. This applies even if the nominative use is commercial, and the same test applies for metatags.
Furthermore, if a use is found to be nominative, then by the definition of non-trademark uses, it can not dilute the trademark.[2]
Nominative use does not require that ownership of the trademark be acknowledged, for example by use of a sentence such as "UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group". Such statements may, however, be required by the terms of a license agreement between the parties, and they may be prudent (and courteous) as a way of preventing misunderstandings or allegations of passing off.
