FIFA Pisses Away Free Advertising By Banning F1 Racer's Tribute Helmet To Germany's Futbol Team
from the they-must-hate-money dept
FIFA, the soccer/futbol/whatever organization that theoretically runs a sporting operation sure seems to actually be some kind of steroid-taking IP lawyer in practice instead. Much like the method by which the Olympics does their business, FIFA has always gone overboard in enforcing its trademarks. It insists on getting airline ads that don't even mention it pulled down, it goes after breweries, and it generally behaves like a psychopathic rich kid who thinks all the toys in the world are his and his alone.
Reader John Katos writes in with the latest head-scratching example of this. Nico Rosberg is big in the world of F1 racing and he wanted to celebrate the German's winning the World Cup with a helmet in an upcoming race. German pride, in other words, because when has that ever gone wrong?
Earlier this week, delighted with the national team's world cup victory in Brazil, Mercedes driver Rosberg announced he will wear a "special edition helmet" this weekend in Hockenheim. The 29-year-old German revealed on social media that the livery includes an image of "the FIFA trophy".
See that thing on top of the helmet? You know, the one that looks like Cthulu's claw reaching up to grip some kind of golden testicle? Well, that's the World Cup trophy, which, really you guys, come up with something a little better than that for the World freaking Cup. Regardless, the uber-lawyers over at FIFA saw this display of national pride and free FIFA advertising and took a dump on it.
We reported earlier that reproducing the image of the trophy falls foul of the world football federation FIFA's strict rules protecting its 'official marks'. The Mercedes driver's public relations manager Georg Nolte confirmed: "There will be an update on Nico's Germany helmet design today.Yes, rather than working out some kind of way to license the helmet for free so as not to risk the dreaded not-protecting-the-mark penalty that seems to drive so much of this heavy-handed nonsense, FIFA just killed off the free advertising. Quite sporting of them, if you ask absolutely no one.
"(It) will be without (the) world cup trophy, but (now) with four stars on it."
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Filed Under: advertising, germany, intellectual property, marketing, world cup
Companies: fifa
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Doesn't the world cup sponsor any racing?
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"Fick dich, FIFA."
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And just a suggestion. Next time, actually start with a damn CUP. Seems pretty dumb to call it the "World Cup" when it isn't really even a cup.
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Seriously, how the heck are you supposed to drink your victory beer out of that thing.
#hockeydoesitright
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Update
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To be fair, "American Football" seems to be the correct name to use when referencing the game played in America. So we're not really being specific ether.
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The interesting thing is the increasing adoption of the Spanish spelling and pronunciation of "futbol."
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And while I have no respect for FIFA as an organisation, I'm pretty sure if a football player had done something similar using a famous FIA symbol, FIA would have reacted the same way.
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..|..
It's fairly simple and transcends the language barrier.
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Hyundai/Kia paid an ungodly sum to be the official car sponsor of the World Cup, for use in advertising world wide. Hyundai was not going to want Mercedes gaining a free ride of world cup association because one of their drivers just happened to be German.
If FIFA had said "yes", complete with that big Mercedes logo in front of the helmet design, any "benefit" from free advertising would have been lost as now every FIFA sponsor knows that their exclusivity can be diluted at a whim.
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reason #158582352 why korporate domination of OUR lives is eeee-vil...
it is NOT that it is or isn't 'illegal' (again, what meaning that has when the 1% ignore laws with impunity, and the 99% get crosswise with secret laws before they get out of bed in the morning), it is that it is IMMORAL...
i know that is an ancient word that has not only ZERO meaning, but NEGATIVE meaning in the korporatocracy we all worship, but some assholes like myself still think being 'moral' is an admirable goal over being profitable...
too many do not think that...
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FIFA
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Obviously they are being assholes about it, but thats sort of their whole deal.
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Godwin already in the posting rather than the comments? Impressive.
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