The POWER of the Blogosphere

[bj]

If you don't understand how powerful blogs can be, here is a great story that shows how they can be leveraged.

Jennifer Laycock, of the Search Engine Guide also runs a blog called the Lactivist, which is about breast feeding. She uses cafepress to sell sloganny teeshirts to pay blog costs, and to support breastfeeding causes and human milk banks. One of the teeshirts she was selling had a slogan that said "The other white milk", a parody of the National Pork Board's "the other white meat" slogan. She's been served a very nasty cease and desist letter by an attorney named Jennifer Daniel Collins, who works for the firm Faegre & Benson, representing the National Pork Board.

Now we all know that anyone who owns a trademark is obliged to defend it, but picking the right fight to defend it is also a part and parcel of how these things are played. But picking a fight with a lactating mother who is also a well respected member of the SEO community is asking for a PR debacle. Well, it's happening now. Head over to Jennifer's Lactivist Blog and watch the fun.

This is what I just pulled off google blogsearch--
Google blog search for "National Pork Board"

I blogged it here:
Porkers Put the Pinch on Breastfeeding Babies

And it's on my political blog as well.

I wouldn't be surprised if some of the TV stations picked this up, since it's a classic David and Goliath story made even more so by Jennifer's status as a nursing mother. Many of the commenters have notified various media outlets, so it's just a matter of time.

This is the power of the blogosphere in action.

[juliemarg]

It also shows the power of a good story. Thousands of bloggers write stories every day that very few people read. But when you have a good hook, you can catch lots of readers and make a blogstorm.

Write about nothing and no one will read you. Find something interesting and who knows - you could become famous.

[bj]

Yes, the quality of the story does make a difference, as well as the fact that Jennifer's blogpost about the issue is well written, entertaining, and contains quite a bit of humor. And of course, the response blogposts contain more, like the one entitled, National Pork Board + Lawyers = Boobs.

It helps that the subject is one close to the hearts of all men. *wicked grin*

[juliemarg]

yeah yeah!

my biggest day as a blogger was when an election official told me I had to take off my shirt during the Cali recall to vote. I was hopping mad when I blogged about it, and lots of visitors wanted to comment about stripping for your candidate.

[bj]

I wish I could have been at your polling place, digicam in hand, when it was happening! LOL!

Actually, this whole National Pork Board story could end up being more than a huge embarassment to those porkers, since some of the political bloggers have picked up on the fact that The National Pork Board is a federal government agency that just paid $60 million dollars for the trademark on "Pork, the other white meat". Yes, I said SIXTY MILLION.

Where did that dough come from? An earmark in one of the appropriations bills, which means it came out of my pocket and yours. Earmarks are one of the classic ways of paying off someone who has "done right" by someone in government. I'm sure the money trail is being followed right now. I, for one, think there are better ways of spending MY tax dollars. I also would NOT want to be The National Pork Board's PR person right now, since spinmeistering it isn't going to work. Not with the bloggers hot on the money trail.

And I wouldn't want to be that lowly associate attorney who was trying to beg billable hours with this crapola case. She'll probably never work again.

Don'tcha love a scandal?

[bugnbelle]

CRAZY! Don't mess with breastfeeding, you'll always get a bunch of angry moms after you. LOL!

That is all very interesting thanks for sharing!

[bj]

So, Bugnbelle, are you blogging it? *wicked grin*

[dharrison]

Interesting article bj.

The golden rule in any case: Don't mess with Mummys. There are just too many hormones knocking about.

Almost like I shouldn't have shouted at some hoodies (teenagers that wear hoods) chucking snowballs at my windows this morning for the same reason.

[bj]

Almost like I shouldn't have shouted at some hoodies (teenagers that wear hoods) chucking snowballs at my windows this morning for the same reason.

Did the windows survive? ;)

[dharrison]

Yeah the french doors are pretty sturdy. They have to be for the kids (inside and out).

But I was on my laptop pretty close to the window and it shocked me more than anything.

Anyway I digress, sorry about that. These trademark souls think they are all above their station dishing out cease and desists and the like to folk that mean no harm. This reminds me of the Harry Potter hobbyist site several years ago where the schoolgirl running it got the same treatment from the movie company.

I mean, God how petty can you get? Blogs are about what again? .... Oh yes freedom of speech.

[bj]

I had a client who ran afoul of this, and the awful thing was the US Corporation (Vanity Fair) didn't even seem to be actively USING said trademark, but Neil said in the UK this type of battle can get VERY expensive and he just didn't have the heart for it. We had just launched his website a couple months before and he had JUST received his first order. I felt so bad for him I redid graphics and put them into template for free. Luckily he had a lot of other sympathetic people who gave him a leg up. And surprisingly, when he wrote to google, at my suggestion, they did get new site indexed and removed old site pretty promptly.

It could have been a lot worse. Too bad Neil didn't have the angle, the skill, the story, and the time that Jennifer did.