Am I allowed to show brands?

[Steve Wargo]

With all that has happened, there has to have been a court case that established some sort of guidelines. We produced a video on an off-raod racing event in 1985 and titled the tape The Mint 400. We got a cease and desist letter from the Dell Webb Corporation. Went to see the lawyer and we sat down to watch our 2 hour epic. After 20 minutes, they asked if we slammed them in any way or had any negative content. We replied “No” and they gave us a legal document granting us the rights to use their “Marks”. They also gave us a disclaimer to put on the front of the program. I asked them about the hundreds of logos appearing in the video and their reply was “We can’t control the world. What’s in the public view is in the public view”. Granted, this is only their opinion but this was their top attorney for trademark and copyright infringement, two terms that I had very little knowledge of 22 years ago. Like many others, I considered it free advertising. We now charge for that when possible.

[Steve Wargo]

The following year, 1986, we produced a more vigorous program and a lot of companies asked how their logos could be seen more often. It seems like sporting events are a different breed and have to be separated from other catagories.

[Steve Goldberg]

This is somewhat unrelated, but I’m curious what people think. I’m editing a video for an insurance company that granted a “free video” to a local fire department on fire safety that will be distributed for free to the residents of the neighborhood. There is a section on “Disaster Kit” and the footage has a lot of products like bottles of water, cans of food, flashlight, bandages, etc. We’re about to reshoot all of this and take the labels off all the items and turn the boxes around so that the “brand” isn’t showing. Is this necessary? Since this is a big corporation, we’re being extra careful, but I’m wondering if we’re being overly paranoid.

Nothing is shown in a bad light in any way.

Steve

[Bob Cole]

Two things:

The insurance company may have existing or potential relationships with various vendors, and it doesn’t want to offend any one of them by featuring their competitors in a sponsored video.

Showing a specific brand, as opposed to a generic description of the contents of a bottle/package, may be considered distracting and misleading. A viewer who can’t get XYZ Brand Rubbing Alcohol may think she needs to find THAT BRAND, whereas all she needs is Rubbing Alcohol.

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[Kc Allen]

If you’re doing a documentary, some of those news rules can apply. Here are a couple of websites I found regarding this issue.

https://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/resources/fair_use/
https://www.photosecrets.com/tips.law.html

Here’s a nice download for doc producers too:

https://centerforsocialmedia.org/rock/backgrounddocs/bestpractices.pdf

KC Allen
Allen Film & Video

“Who’s the more foolish? The fool, or the fool who follows?”