Parlor Spider...Step In, Little Fly

Insightful thoughts and/or rants from atop the soapbox from one who wishes to share the "right" opinion with everyone.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Laughing It Up In Topeka


NOT A "FLYING W" BUT STILL...

Discussion turned this past week, for some unknown reason, to the University of Wisconsin. Perhaps it's because we were out of state wearing Wisconsin and UW-Green Bay apparel, but it came up somehow. One guy chased me down the street to question whether my "Green Bay Basketball" emblazoned shirt was a joke: as far as he knew, nobody in Green Bay played basketball, just football. Anyhow, as we discussed all things Wisconsin among our small but loyal group, the Barry Alvarez "Ugliest Statue In the World That Looks More Like A Penis Than Anything" came up as well as his copyright on the logo for the University of Wisconsin: the "flying W." At this point, I regaled my counterparts with the ongoing controversy concerning the "theft" of the logo by Washburn University, a small college in Topeka, and how my Uncle Al was positively beside himself (no easy task) at the suit filed over a trademark infringement. Washburn was not alone, mind you: high schools have also been subject to potential litigation over the use of that same logo, registered by Barry Alvarez the athletics director at UW-Madison. Anyway, we all had a good chuckle...until we got a look at the new State of Wisconsin tourism logo/slogan.
It's not so much that I see almost nobody around here doing cartwheels; it's not so much that the font is a combination of squiggles; it's not so much that the state paid $50,000.00 for development of the whole thing (well, MAYBE that's part of it). It's really all about the fact that the slogan "Live Like You Mean It" has two things wrong with it. First of all, to be absolutely correct, it should read "Live As If You Mean It." Secondly, at least one other entity has a trademark on that very collection of words.
A lawyer in Lexington, Kentucky, registered those words as a trademark for a local real estate developer in 2007. Not enough? Singer/songwriter Carla Seidl of Huntigton, New York, released a song so entitled. Notable is the first line of her song: "Live like you mean it. Leave the cubicle of supposed to." Bacardi even had this as a catch phrase for their marketing of rum, though they dropped it last year, and Sheri Mortko, a life coach in Kansas City uses "Live Like You Mean It" as part of her motivational series title. So it's not like ANYBODY with the state tourism department couldn't have found this information out before signing the check for 50k! Of course, they were probably just anxious to shed the previous tourism slogan...what? you didn't know there WAS one? A perfect reason to get rid of "Life's So Good."
So, in the public interest,I will work hard this evening to come up with an acceptable alternative for the Badger state. Any ideas out there?
As far as Uncle Al and the folks at Washburn...enjoy the yuks.

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