While hugging trees during field work yesterday I was listening to the latest podcast of NPR's Wait Wait Don't Tell Me. Towards the end of the episode they talked/joked about a story about the National Pork Industry and their search for a new slogan to replace the well known "The Other White Meat." This reminded me of a story I had read just that morning in The Washington Post regarding the the case of the National Pork Board v. ThinkGeek Inc (website).The case involves the website's use of the trademarked slogan "The Other White Meat." According to the letter sent to the website by the lawyers representing the National Pork Board: "We are writing you in connection with your activities at the Web site www.thinkgeek.com, wherein you have been marketing a product called 'Radiant Farms Canned Unicorn Meat' using the slogan 'Unicorn -- the new white meat.' A copy of the Web site page is attached for your reference."
Let me give you a second to read that again and let it really soak in...
Yeah, unicorn meat. Apparently the "meat" in question was a prank product launch for April Fool's Day and is described by the website as "...the sparkling, crunchy, savory meat of today's elite." And ok, I get that the industry is just trying to protect its slogan, but really April Fool's Day + unicorns = not worth the legal expenses.
See the offending website "ad" here:
http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/41/unicorn-meat.shtml
and their response to the ordeal:
http://www.thinkgeek.com/blog/2010/06/officially-our-bestever-cease.html
and here's The Washington Post story:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/22/AR2010062201657.html
and here's The Washington Post story:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/22/AR2010062201657.html
Update! The New York Times just posted about this on their Bits Blog:
(image from knowyourmeme.com)
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