Xerox, Vaseline, Kleenex, Lego(s) and Q-Tips | Friday Flickr Fix | 02.22.08

Bear with the bad headline as I get to a point.

According to the AP, "Hillary Rodham Clinton accused presidential rival Barack Obama of political plagiarism Thursday night, but drew boos from a Democratic debate audience when she ridiculed him as the candidate of 'change you can Xerox.'"

One of my best client contacts ever trained me to refer to the photocopier as just that. Well-intended patent lawyers drive marketers to preserve their trademarked brand names...with mixed results.

We push marketers to give up control of the message. If this evangelism were a song, might I recommend remaking this 70's ditty?

Put your brand in the hand of the man that buys your product
Put your brand in the hand of the man who spends money
Take a look at yourself and you can look at customers differently
By puttin' your brand in the hand of the man who'll promote for free.

Yeah, I'm going to marketing hell.

My point is that handing over control is not an all or nothing proposition. And before we, er, crucify a company that does not stop, drop and roll over we should stop to consider if that company is driven by legal, engineering or marketing. There is a bigger picture to companies than the pixels marketing pulls together.

Morning Rays uploaded by GR58
tags | advertising | marketing

Comments

[Nate Fuller]

Kevin- Thanks for commenting. I appreciate the additional links to blogs, too. Any information I can receive about the industry is much appreciated.

[Maku]

Could you explain why you mentioned Kleenex in this article?:)

I am not American and it's a bit hard for me to understand the (probably obvious:) link between Hilary, Lego, Xerox and Kleenex:)

Thanks and greetings from Poland:)

[Kevin Dugan]

Maku - A great question. I was being far too U.S.-focused with my brand name joke and should have explained fully in my post.

All of the names are brand names that are so popular, many people use them to refer to their more common names

Xerox instead of copy
Vaseline instead of petroleum jelly
Kleenex instead of facial tiesue
Legos instead of, er, interlocking building blocks?
Q-Tips instead of cotton swabs

Thanks for asking!