February 2nd, 2012 
joel 
How the Hard Rock Hotel is promoting the Big Game
When a local reporter gets tapped to cover a professional sports championship, its a plum of an assignment that makes up for all those miserable quarters of high school football in the sleet, or the mind-numbing innings of a pitching dual.
What makes covering the championship of the National Football League unique, is that depending on your lawyers’ interpretation of copyright and trademark laws, these reporters may not be able to specifically name the event they are covering. That’s the case of Mike Ruzzi and Jay Puskar, whose station WICU will broadcast the Pro Football Championship Sunday evening. In a spot promoting their coverage from Indianapolis, the talk is all about the Championship and the Big Game.
In a Chicago Tribune article Wednesday, the paper quotes an NFL spokesman regarding protecting their trademarked phrase “Super Bowl”, “When we become aware of a potential violation, we will be very aggressive, and sending a cease and desist letter would be the first step.”
In a 2008 newsletter to its clients, broadcast law firm Leventhal, Senter & Lerman warned that:
Without express permission from the NFL or the teams, you may not use the following, or related protected
words or logos in marketing or promotions:
- “Super Bowl”
- “Super Sunday”
- The Super Bowl logo
- “NFL”, “AFC”, or “NFC”
- “National Football League”
- “American Football Conference”
- “National Football Conference”
- Any team name (e.g., “Patriots”) or nickname (“Pats”)
The law firm goes on to indicate that stations can’t even give away tickets to the game in a promotion, even if they paid for them; it’s one of the terms and conditions on the ticket itself.
I’m quite sure that the verbal gymnastics Mike and Jay might occasionally enter into won’t diminish the coolness of one of the best assignments of their careers…at the big game in Indianapolis.
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I asked Luke to share his experiences at the biggest media event of the year. Here he is in his own words, exclusively on The Press and Tower:
Deep Background for September 5-11, 2010
College football began it’s regular season this past weekend with wins by Penn State and Notre Dame, along with Gannon, Edinboro, and Mercyhurst, and a loss for Pitt. Kickoff Weekend for the NFL launches this Thursday night as the Minnesota Vikings fly south to the Super Dome to take on the World Champion New Orleans Saints.
When you mix the start of the grid game and school starting, along with the end of summer vacations and school starting, I think mentally and emotionally this time of year might as well be call New Years more than January 1st.
It’s also time for the new fall TV season to start, often accompanied by new looks in graphics or sets or personalities.
It’s also a good time for our producers of news and entertainment to redouble their efforts after a very enjoyable summer to bring us their best as they communicate their craft and facilitate our community’s unity. That sound too flowery for you? How about we double check our facts, we put a little extra finesse into the package, do a little more show prep for the shift, make sure all of our links go to the right places.
It’s a new year.
Freely converse about all things Erie media and beyond on this open forum:
Embrace the chaos!