A couple of years ago, our friend John Welch over at the TTABlog reported about a white color trademark that had acquired distinctiveness, according to a rare precedential TTAB decision:
No, that’s not a roll of toilet paper, it’s a preformed gunpowder charge for use in muzzleloading rifles. And the applied-for mark
–James Mahoney, Razor’s Edge Communications
Recently, I came across a snappy-looking website with unconventional design for a small consulting company. It’s cleverly done, easy to navigate, and appears to have good information.
I say “appears to have” because there’s one slight problem: it’s challenging to read it. The design motif has small white type on
Recently, a friend and I were watching The Bachelor—I know, I should be ashamed. During one of the commercial breaks, a spot appeared on-screen showing a woman wearing an elegant dress walking through a hallway. She turns into a doorway, and blue, shimmering light projects onto her face, as if she was underwater. A
–James Mahoney, Razor’s Edge Communications
Awhile ago, I wrote about how casting decisions almost always make someone cranky. Lately I’ve been seeing lots of commercials that speak to the flip side of the crankiness factor.
Creative teams are always on the lookout for ways to connect with the zeitgeist. Most of the time, if
–James Mahoney, Razor’s Edge Communications
Admit it, when you saw the headline, many of you finished the jingle featured in Farmers Insurance TV commercials.
Farmers has a great campaign going. Geico has a good campaign going. Both are entertaining. First, Farmers:
Their “Hall of Claims” series, developed by RPA, showcases weird situations that Farmers
Growing up with a farm in the family, I learned early on that Nothing Runs Like Deere®. As people tend to do, we named all of the tractors – after Masters of the Universe characters, of course. There was a front-loader type tractor of a brand I don’t recall named Skelator, another old tractor
One of my passions is to find common and favorable ground between legal and marketing types.
One of the readings during week three of Seth Godin’s intensive altMBA workshop reminded me of a great example to illustrate how a valid marketing goal can align with strong legal protection.
An excerpt from Seth’s All Marketers are
–James Mahoney, Razor’s Edge Communications
Recent travel on Aer Lingus and a perusal of The Boston Sunday Globe brought two very good ads to my attention.
The first, which ran in the Aer Lingus on-board magazine, is a terrific marriage of great concept and excellent execution plus situational relevance: you’re on a plane on your
–James Mahoney, Razor’s Edge Communications
As I perused The New York Times on Sunday Aug. 20th, Chiquita Banana burst forth amid all the brouhaha reporting with a full page of the best ad I’ve seen in a long time.
I feel sorry for those who missed it, because most of us can use
We’ve written a lot over the years about Adidas’ three-stripe non-verbal, non-traditional trademark. Turns out, Adidas actually owns a federally-registered trademark for the verbal, spelled-out, look-for advertising equivalent too, called: The Brand With The 3 Stripes®.
We haven’t until now probed the meaning of “stripe” though: “A long narrow band or strip,