Comments on: This Baby Brought to You By http://madisonian.net/2006/12/06/this-baby-brought-to-you-by/ a blog about law, tech, culture, and related things Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:58:52 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: William McGeveran http://madisonian.net/2006/12/06/this-baby-brought-to-you-by/comment-page-1/#comment-114084 William McGeveran Wed, 13 Dec 2006 17:10:41 +0000 http://madisonian.net/?p=871#comment-114084 I love this post! My trackback didn't work, but I had some comments at Info/Law: http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/infolaw/2006/12/13/baby-naming-rights/ Now let's see if your spam filter considers a message with a link suspicious too! I love this post! My trackback didn’t work, but I had some comments at Info/Law: http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/infolaw/2006/12/13/baby-naming-rights/

Now let’s see if your spam filter considers a message with a link suspicious too!

]]> By: Justin Schantz http://madisonian.net/2006/12/06/this-baby-brought-to-you-by/comment-page-1/#comment-108343 Justin Schantz Thu, 07 Dec 2006 17:35:29 +0000 http://madisonian.net/?p=871#comment-108343 Interestingly enough, you don't have to wait until the end of the decade to see this happen, as something quite similar has already happened. Acclaim, a now-defunct videogame company that was infamous for its bizarre marketing stunts, started a contest where expecting parents could enter a contest to win $10,000. If their child was the first one born on a specific date and the parents were willing to legally name their newborn child "Turok" for a year, the parents would be given $10,000 in savings bonds. A copy of their original press release can be found here: http://www.gaming-age.com/news/2002/8/27-93 Needless to say, the contest created a firestorm of bad publicity for the company, although I seem to remember hearing at at least one family did enter the contest and actually did name their child Turok for a year. So while ethics did intervene, it did not appear to be a very successful intervention. (The company ultimately went bankrupt because of very poor sales, but it's an open question about whether it was due to bad publicity or just bad games.) Interestingly enough, you don’t have to wait until the end of the decade to see this happen, as something quite similar has already happened. Acclaim, a now-defunct videogame company that was infamous for its bizarre marketing stunts, started a contest where expecting parents could enter a contest to win $10,000. If their child was the first one born on a specific date and the parents were willing to legally name their newborn child “Turok” for a year, the parents would be given $10,000 in savings bonds. A copy of their original press release can be found here: http://www.gaming-age.com/news/2002/8/27-93

Needless to say, the contest created a firestorm of bad publicity for the company, although I seem to remember hearing at at least one family did enter the contest and actually did name their child Turok for a year. So while ethics did intervene, it did not appear to be a very successful intervention. (The company ultimately went bankrupt because of very poor sales, but it’s an open question about whether it was due to bad publicity or just bad games.)

]]> By: Frank http://madisonian.net/2006/12/06/this-baby-brought-to-you-by/comment-page-1/#comment-108278 Frank Thu, 07 Dec 2006 13:54:06 +0000 http://madisonian.net/?p=871#comment-108278 On the flip side--what if the TM-owner tries to enjoin the naming of the child with its TM? They might think: "oh no, Nabisco may be diluted if it becomes a popular name!" I knew someone named Chardonnay, which might bring up some interesting geographical appellation issues. I think, in the product placement arena, companies started by warning moviemakers *not* to make unauthorized use of their products in films...of course, now they pay for it. (Ellen Goodman's article on Stealth Marketing has some fascinating analyses of this issue.) Another marker of cultural change: people no longer being named after saints, but after the leading (and not-so-obscure) objects of desire of consumer culture. On the flip side–what if the TM-owner tries to enjoin the naming of the child with its TM? They might think: “oh no, Nabisco may be diluted if it becomes a popular name!” I knew someone named Chardonnay, which might bring up some interesting geographical appellation issues.

I think, in the product placement arena, companies started by warning moviemakers *not* to make unauthorized use of their products in films…of course, now they pay for it. (Ellen Goodman’s article on Stealth Marketing has some fascinating analyses of this issue.)

Another marker of cultural change: people no longer being named after saints, but after the leading (and not-so-obscure) objects of desire of consumer culture.

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