Blogbook
Duolingo promises to make learning languages fun with its latest, bright and cute animated ad. We haven’t tried it yet, but we should.
What do Will Ferrell, GM, and Norway have in common? A weirdly combative ad that Will cut for GM electric cars for the Superbowl has become quite a stoush. It began with this ad:
After which a university in Norway responded with this:
And now Audi Norway has enlisted the aid of Norwegian Game of Thrones actor Kristofer Hivju to cut this:
Looking forward to seeing how GM might respond. Or not. Game’s well and truly over, in our opinion.
Jessica Long is a double amputee and a 13-time Paralympic gold medalist. Toyota’s Superbowl 2021 ad focuses on her inspiring story.
TNB CNY 2021 – Happy Lunar/Chinese New Year 2021! Year of the Ox! This year’s funniest ad for the season has to go to TNB.
Ryan Reynolds, David Beckham, and Diddy attempt mixing their various personal alcohols together for… science? For Diageo? Funny results.
Bruce Springsteen Superbowl ad — The Boss has partnered with Jeep to create this weirdly centre of the road American apolitical ad. In this climate, you ask? Haha.
Michael B Jordan has an ad for Alexa in this year’s Superbowl, and in our opinion it’s the best Superbowl ad of this year by far. Why? Just watch the ad.
Brand Names that are now Generic
“When something becomes so pervasive in everyday society as a result of its own fame, there’s an argument that it no longer represents the brand, it almost represents the action. So as a result of that, in trademark law, you cannot trademark things that are descriptive or generic in nature.”
- Onesies: Onesies is still a registered trademark, but have become widely used in referral to one-piece jumpsuits.
- Bubble Wrap: While technically still a registered trademark of Sealed Air, it’s now effectively a generic trademark.
- Crock-Pot: While people often refer to slow-cookers as crock pots, Crock-Pot is still registered, and a few years ago had to respond to an unexpected PR nightmare. Basically, a fan-favourite character from the show This is Us died after a crock pot accident set the draperies on fire. Crock-Pot had to create a twitter account to deal with freaked out fans throwing away their Crock-Pots, and even asked NBC for help to correct the misunderstanding.
- Dumpster: Trademarked by the Dempster Brothers and patented by them in 1995, the trademark has since been expired or cancelled.
- Jacuzzi: Still trademarked, but often used as a generic name for a hot tub.
Avoiding Genericism - A Xerox Story
Bayer Co. v. United Drug Co. was a seminal case in which Bayer lost its trademark for Aspirin to what experts now refer to as “genericide.” That 1921 case set the table for the modern standard that courts currently follow: If a brand name is understood by the public to refer broadly to a category of goods and services rather than a brand’s specific good or service, a company may be at risk of losing its trademark. Escalator, cellophane, and laundromat have all lost their trademark status to genericide.
Xerox’s IP counsel and marketing team works hard to ensure Xerox’s survivability as a registered trademark, avoiding what happened to Zipper and Aspirin. They do this by raising awareness that ‘Xerox’ is a registered trademark, educating people who use the trademark wrongly. They work with dictionaries, run ads, and also do work with Wikipedia and so on. So far, it seems to be working. Xerox still has its trademark. Other brands, like Velcro, have also run ads hoping to avoid this fate.
A Good In-Between
US vs UK Food Wars – the KFC episode of this show looks at the differences between the KFC menu in both countries. Looks yummy to me…
The Bird Genoscape Project aims to revolutionalise bird conservation by connecting migratory birds and environmentalists through the Americas.