-Sean Hannity is really hanging in there with the “Michael J. Fox just acts afflicted for ads” angle. For the record, Fox’s erratic movement in the ad is a result of taking Parkinson’s medication, not going off it. So add that to your list of things Rush Limbaugh knows nothing about.
-Google.com doesn’t want you to use ‘Google’ as a verb; Jimski.net doesn’t give a f*** what Google.com wants. Google is simultaneously scanning copyrighted books’ text into Google over the protests of the authors and warning you that its lawyers think eroding their name’s copyright is “very, very bad.” Is that, like, censoring-the-internet-for-China “very, very bad”?
I’ve been hearing this tune since my college Marketing days, and I have been combing my brain ever since to think of a less serious problem. “Our product is so successful, it’s diluting our name” is not exactly up there with domestic abuse or landmine awareness.
October 25th, 2006 at 6:36 pm
I guess you’re not being fair to Google. They censor their search results so the Great Firewall doesn’t censor it, which they do by blocking all access to Google from your IP address for a set period of time. Google’s censorship changes are resulting in a net decrease in censorship.
October 25th, 2006 at 6:48 pm
I briefly thought it would be funny to block the IP this comment came from, just for a little while.
October 25th, 2006 at 8:00 pm
While I don’t mean to suggest that we love the suffer but hate the disease, your malice about trademark dilution is probably better directed at the law (legislated, regulatory, and case) that makes it necessary. Companies like Google, Lego, and Kimberly-Clark (Kleenex) don’t really have to stop the use of their brand names, but they do have to try, so they can demonstrate their due diligence if they ever end up having to defend against their competitors using it.
[Comment about censorship redacted.]
October 26th, 2006 at 8:46 am
Let’s face it, you’re a bunch of self-aggrandizing corporate schmucks. What’s even more cringe-inducing than the bit about how to do what “our lawyers say” is the fact that there are people out there who have such brand loyalty to Google, Inc. that they WILL ACTUALLY DO IT. Urgh.
FedEx doesn’t it like when you “FedEx a package.” You may “ship it with FedEx” however. Or use the USPS, if you like to gamble with your parcels and important documents.
October 26th, 2006 at 10:09 am
A couple of people still die, every month, from unexploded ordinance that the US dropped on Laos during the Vietnam War.
October 26th, 2006 at 10:17 am
Greg, we only dropped that ordnance to protect our brand.
Remember Infoseek? Man, Infoseek was pretty cool.
A guy on 97.1 FM here in town was talking about Michael J. Fox\’s Claire McCaskill ad yesterday afternoon and decided, for the duration of the broadcast, to refer to Fox as \”the Jiggler.\” So that\’s where we are. I spent half an hour on hold for naught.