Green All Over
A Dummy's Puppet's Ramblings - from Chip Martin, Puppet (Mannequin American views and guidelines on marketing/PR trends plus bits of humor and interesting but useless information.)
It's Not Easy Being "Green"
Getting ready well in advance for Earth Day, marketers bombarded the Patent and Trademark Office last year for green-themed logos and tag lines, setting a record for new trademark applications.
New trademarks last year topped 300,000. The previous record was 289,000 filings, set in 2000 during the internet boom.
The surge led to "green gridlock," with multiple companies filing for almost-identical marks at nearly the same time. Since a trademark by definition is a distinctive term, many of these me-too filings will either not merit legal protection or will be very weak trademarks, according to legal experts.
Applications for everything from the obvious ("Eco-Friendly," "Go Green") to the slightly more creative ("Green is the New Black," "Red States, Blue States, Green States") flooded the trademark office in 2007.
"Green" was the most popular word among marketers, with applications more than doubling from 1,100 in 2006 to 2,400 in 2007. Trademarks with the prefix "eco" were just as hot, also more than doubling, with nearly 900 new applications in 2007. Products ranging from an Eco-Brella to an Eco-Coffin were submitted to the trademark office. If all the new eco-branded products filed in 2007 actually come to market, an Eco-Citizen will be able to buy an Eco-House in Eco-Town from an Eco-Realtor.
Here are the "Green Branding" words most used in trademarks in 2007:
Green 2,400
Energy 1,200
Clean 900
Earth 900
Eco 900
Organic 700
Environment 450
Planet 400
Friendly 180
Speaking of "Green"
Ever wonder how they get Kermit to pose for all of those advertisements and calendar shots? They pay him a lot of money. But how they "physically" get him to do it is another matter. They use a specially designed, highly detailed, pose-able figure that can be put in just about any position imaginable.
Dale's brother-in-law, mother-in-law and wife recently presented him with a numbered replica of a Kermit Photo Puppet.
Here the newest addition to Dale's extensive Muppet collection ponders his identical likeness in a magazine ad for a Ford Escape Hybrid. (Yes, Dale collects ads with puppets in them. It's a sickness.) I could have gotten that job with Ford if I had been willing to paint myself "green." Frankly, I find the hiring of a frog simply because he's green, to be discriminatory.
Air Supply
Speaking of products that I wouldn't purchase ... move over energy drinks. The newest consumer "beverage" is ... nothing.
Big Ox is a can of 89% pure flavored oxygen. The sellers claim "Restoring higher oxygen levels in the blood can promote an increase in energy! You would be wise not to let some oxygenated person get an edge over you!"
The product comes in convenient portable oxygen tanks. So if you want to out-last and out-think your competitors, BREATHE! (I'm only a Mannequin American, but I can't believe people will become loyal buyers of air. Where do people come up with these ideas? More importantly, where do they find people to buy them?)
Get Ready for an Advertising Barrage at Movie Theatres
If you go to the movies this summer be prepared to watch some commercials. Advertisers, especially automakers, are trying to get at the blockbuster crowd. As a result they're driving double-digit growth in movie theatre advertising.
What's the big draw of the big screen? It's a captive younger audience and no TiVo.
"You're in an uncluttered environment where you have a dedicated audience in their seats," said Mark Spencer, senior manager-communications for Chrysler's Dodge brand.
Dodge, which used cinema for the late-spring launch of its Caliber two years ago, expects some 44 million impressions from its movie theatre ads which will appear in over 11,000 theatres across the country.
