The Devil Is in the Copyright Details: Office Depot Plagiarized $6 Haircut Joke
Office Depot (ODP) appears to have stopped running one of its TV ads after a small Ohio marketing agency complained that the ad stole one of its jokes, almost line by line. The episode offers a lesson in how, if you aggressively protect your intellectual property, you can own something as trivial as an anecdote.
The Office Depot ad, by agency Y&R New York, tells the story of how a small barber is suddenly faced with a chain hairdressing shop opening up across the street offering $6 haircuts. So the smalltown barber goes to Office Depot and buys a big banner that says "We fix $6 haircuts." The big chain closes. Ba-dum-bump!
The Slutsky Family Blog -- run by Helene, the wife of Jeff Slutsky of Street Fighter Marketing in Gahanna, Ohio, posted that ad alongside a video of Jeff giving a speech in which he tells an almost identical story:
Is it a coincidence that Jeff spoke at the National Association of Office Suppliers a few years ago? Do you think someone from the ad agency may have been in his audience? I do. I totally believe that the fine folks at the high priced ad agency realized this story would make an awesome commercial. Do I whole heartily think Young & Rubicam ripped Jeff off, YES, I do.
Now, as a result of this national advertising campaign, Jeff can't use that example of Street Fighter marketing in his opening keynote, because, the audience will assume he is using someone else's story.
Jeff contacted the CEO of Office Depot right after the commercial was airing. His letter was forwarded to the legal team that represents the Agency of Young & Rubicam, who supposedly, created the spot. There have been numerous legally worded back and forth letters between the two parties and the ad agency believes they did nothing wrong. They think that there are technicalities that make the commerical vastly changed and different from Jeff's copy writed piece. It is total bullshit, but nonetheless, they covered their ass by pulling the commercial.Initially I was suspicious that Slutsky could "own" what appears to be an apocryphal business anecdote. If you do a search for the "we fix $6 haircuts" meme you can find that it's used as a selling device here and here and here and here and here. There's a hairdresser down the street from my house that uses the motto "we fix $150 haircuts."
But the Slutskys make a good case. Their anecdote, about a specific chain called Fantastic Sam's, was published and copyrighted years ago, they claim:
He has several published books referencing this example of Street Fighter Marketing, and he copyrighted it as part of his intellectual property, since he uses this as his signature story in keynote speeches.There you have it: even something as trivial as an after-dinner speech can be a powerful piece of protected intellectual property as long as your lawyer acts first.
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