An online site called ThinkGeek, which is basically an online store selling merch. for the geek end of the market (clothes with geek humour emblazoned thereon, toys, gadgets and gizmos etc), featured a story relating to their best-ever Cease and Desist Letter received.
If you want to skip to the horses mouth, follow the url below:
ThinkGeek C and D Letter
In an nutshell, ThinkGeek had done the traditional April Fool's Day thing, which in their case was adding a special 'product' for sale. The product?
Canned Unicorn Meat
Yes – they pretended to flog the flesh of a mythical beast, complete with a marketing blurb and visual mockup of the can in which said mythical beast flesh was offered. Piccie of the can below courtesy of the ThinkGeek site:
ThinkGeek had done a nice job of the prank, even down to the set up of a 'purchase' page on their store site – link below:
Canned Unicorn Meat Store Page
The product description, presented in part below, was hilarious:
Pâté is passé. Unicorn - the new white meat.
Excellent source of sparkles!
Unicorns, as we all know, frolic all over the world, pooping rainbows and marshmallows wherever they go. What you don't know is that when unicorns reach the end of their lifespan, they are drawn to County Meath, Ireland. The Sisters at Radiant Farms have dedicated their lives to nursing these elegant creatures through their final days. Taking a cue from the Kobe beef industry, they massage each unicorn's coat with Guinness daily and fatten them on a diet comprised entirely of candy corn.
As the unicorn ages, its meat becomes fatty and marbled and the living bone in the horn loses density in a process much like osteoporosis. The horn's outer layer of keratin begins to develop a flavor very similar to candied almonds. Blending the crushed unicorn horn into the meat adds delightful, crispy flavor notes in each bite. We are confident you will find a world of bewilderment in every mouthful of scrumptious unicorn meat.
Funny shit – well I found it extremely giggle-worthy.
Apparently the folks at the National Pork Board didn't – they sent ThinkGeek a Cease and Desist Letter.
Seems the NPB felt that the slogan ThinkGeek used - 'Unicorn – the new white meat' - for their delectable fantasy product was a little too close to the NPB's own slogan for porky goodness - 'Pork – the Other White Meat'.
Now, I am aware that Trademark law in the US is such that one must actively protect one's trademark: if you let others use your own trademark to their nefarious ends without protecting it, then you can lose it. Fair enough. But protecting oneself from a fantasy product?
Or maybe I've got it all wrong. Maybe ThinkGeek's marketing mojo is so great that it actually convinced a NPB marketroid and a lawyer or two that Canned Unicorn Meat is not only an existing product, but that it's soon going to take one huge chunk out of the Pork market share pie?
This bit of ThinkGeek's recitation of the whole saga really cracked me up:
"We'd like to publicly apologize to the NPB for the confusion over unicorn and pork--and for their awkward extended pause on the phone after we had explained our unicorn meat doesn't actually exist.
One can imagine crickets chirping during that 'awkward extended pause'. Classic stuff.
Ride safe!
