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Ford apparently isn’t the only firm that “speaks car.” The ChiTrib reports that a Pennsylvania parts dealer is suing Ford for using the line “we speak car” in recent ads, claiming it has used the phrase for six years. Frank’s Auto Supply of Uniontown, PA uses wespeakcar.com as its website, and has used the trite neologism in advertising since June of 2003. The parts dealer is suing Ford in federal court, seeking unspecified damages and a ban on Ford’s use of the phrase. The upside to ripping off another marketing tagline? No one really misses the unoriginal ad when it gets pulled.
18 Comments on “Ford Sued Over Insipid Marketing Tagline...”
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The only upside is to the dealer for publicity.
That’s a stupid campaign anyway. However, it’s not as bad as Pontiac’s from a year or so ago. What was it, Poniac Is Car, or We Heart Car? Something really stupid, that’s all i remember. Anyway, make something new up that doesn’t belong to someone else, and that doesn’t suck, and roll with it. Hopefully Ford will drop the ads, the case will be dropped as well, and everyone can move on.
Ford’s been sued for much worse over the years and lived. This will be but a small byline in the Ford history book.
That’s a stupid campaign anyway.
This.
Why don’t they have something like “Ford–Moving Forward”. Or even bring back “Quality is job 1”. I always thought the latter was a really good slogan.
BTW, isn’t the “HI!” in one of their new ads kind of ripped off from 1990s Chrysler anyway?
Reminds me of the story of The Marx Brothers being sued for the name of “Casablanca” in their spoof “A Night in Casablanca”. I know it was just a publicity stunt on behalf of Groucho Marx, but it is funny as hell nonetheless:
http://www.snopes.com/movies/films/casablanca.asp
Pretty sure the auto parts store is gonna lose. As long as Ford isn’t using the tag to sell parts in the small guys market, they are probably going to get a pass.
….if we could sue any automaker for false advertising claims, Chrysler would have gone under 10 years ago….actually read your products’ reviews before you make an ad for them.
“We speak Car” sucks, pure and simple. “Have you driven a Ford, Lately” would have been much better, since they have much better reliability now…
I can’t believe how Ford’s IP lawyers didn’t do enough due diligence to check out domain names. While it’s not as strong as trademark registration with the USPTO, use of a domain name in commerce establishes pretty strong rights to the name.
Is there a bunch of cavemen coming up with taglines over at the Big Three? “Pontiac is Car”. “We Speak Car.” “Drive One”. “Ugg Like Shiny Wheel”.
Doesn’t necessarily matter.
A trademark isn’t absolute. Especially if you are a small, unknown company, you run the risk of Ford or Xerox or Hertz taking over your trademark. You’ll only win a trademark case if you show that the new user is causing you competitive damage by sowing confusion in the consumer’s mind.
There’s a case like this, there was a “Wizards” (Or Magic or one of the newer team names) team that was on the Harlem Globetrotter novelty basketball circuit. Then the NBA team comes along and starts a team with the same name. Same name, same sport. The old team lost. They didn’t have to change their name, but they couldn’t prevent the NBA team from using the name because consumers were unlikely to get a low budget novelty team confused with an NBA team hundreds of miles away.—- this is my memory of a case I read a couple of years ago. Details are certainly wrong, and hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if I got the conclusion wrong, but I’m pretty sure it’s right.
I keep associating the blue oval with F-150. Every time I see that logo I think Full Size Pick Up Truck. Maybe they should modify their logo for hybrids? Ford-e instead of Ford?
I’m sure there’s a lo of people who would like to have sued over “Quality is Job 1” a few years back at least under the guise of false advertising.
I’d also nominate “Like a Rock” and “An American Revolution”.
Ford UK had an awesome campaign in the early 1990s where they had Brian May record a special version of his song “Driven By You” with an accompanying montage of people driving shiny new Escorts and Sierras.
The tag line was “Everything we do is driven by you”. Why can’t they just re-use this with new footage? I’m sure Brian May wouldn’t mind.
You can see the advertisement on Youtube at Driven by you – Ford commercial
As a resident of Pennsylvania, I’ll confirm that Frank’s Auto Supply has been using that tagline for 6 years, and also say that their ads are far more annoying than anything Ford could come up with, and, if I recall correctly, misogynistic to boot.
I never saw the Ford ads using this tagline, and also as a PA resident, never saw Frank’s either. Their marketing isn’t working now is it.
Now Honda makes kickass commercials. The Cog where a Euro Accord is being assembled by a Rube Goldberg-like method, the “Power of Dreams” ad, that diesel cartoon ad, the live commercial with skydivers spelling HONDA in free fall, the Civic musical road. “The power of dreams” is a great tagline as well.
I can’t remember any Ford commercial other than the one with that hot woman that says “You’ve got to put Mercury on your list”.
BDB: BTW, isn’t the “HI!” in one of their new ads kind of ripped off from 1990s Chrysler anyway?
Chrysler used the “Hi” tagline for the advertisements when the Dodge/Plymouth Neon was introduced in the mid-1990s.