Thursday, February 03, 2005

The "Big Game"

I've been on a search for the truth about something that's been bothering me for a while now...

Why (oh why) can't advertisers use the words "SUPER BOWL" to describe the championship matchup of the two best teams, one from AFC, one from NFC, that occurs on a Sunday in February each year? They talk around it, like it's a 4-letter word. (my count shows 10 letters, including the space)

They can say "Olympics", "Oscars", "Grammies", and "Oprah" without fear of reprisal. Why not "Super Bowl"? Is it because it's trademarked? Surely the term "Olympics" is trademarked, copyrighted, and backed by many, many attorneys. I know "Oprah" is.

So here's what I found... I can't find a reason! Anywhere! Well, okay, I only looked for the past 15 minutes on the Internet. But still!

I will find out for you, dear blog reader. You deserve to know the reason.

The truth is out there.

1 comment:

Cagey (Kelli Oliver George) said...

Here you go....
Do a search on "super bowl" and it is the first article you come across.....about a quarter of the way down, ironically.

http://www.aspendailynews.com/mm/mm.cfm

In short:
"The NFL staffs lawyers year-round to guard its trademarks, which include the words "Super Bowl," "Super Sunday" and team names, among others. That means that companies that don't have sponsorship or licensee deals with the NFL can't use those very words that are part of the American vernacular."