"His confident smile and kind eyes are an inspiration to us all"

[fleaplus.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty amused by the "family" remarks in the commercial. "I never thought this day would come... and now we own a piece of history... Our generation has spoken, and now this special treasure will be cherished as a prized family heirloom... for generations to come."

On a more serious note, I'm actually curious: Under US law, can any company use imagery of any political figure on their merchandise, without the figure's permission and in any way they choose?

Comments

[i.livejournal.com]

i think so, so long as there is no implication of endorsement.

[kabandra.livejournal.com]

Oh and just to make sure you saw the Jon Stewart clip on it mentioning that on the back it doesn't even have the final electoral count on it.. it didn't wait for Nevada or Montana! (or whatever the last two states were).

I cringe at this stuff.

[speckled-llama.livejournal.com]

I really don't get it- you're putting food on the face of the president-elect?
On a related note, does anyone else find it odd that on the 4th of July, we eat on plates with the flag on them, and then throw them out.

[ericcoleman.livejournal.com]

20 or so years ago Steve Goodman wrote a song called Vegematic, about a guy who buys everything in the late night TV ads ... it included this bit ...

A set of presidential commemorative plates
So I could eat my eggs off the President's face,

[fleaplus.livejournal.com]

And you're limited to two per household, so I guess you'd also need to find some GWB and Clinton inaugural plates to have a full table set.

[reality-hammer.livejournal.com]

A person (or their estate) controls the name, which is why they are called "victory plates" and not "Barack Obama plates".

[fleaplus.livejournal.com]

It's pretty funny, but I only realized just now that Barack Obama's name isn't mentioned a single time during the entire commercial (although it displays Obama's name briefly when it zooms in on the vote total).

[epikaste.livejournal.com]

My, is that ever tacky.

I believe so, if they have rights to the photograph used, though they can't use their name as part of the product's name.

[psychomatt.livejournal.com]

I believe public figure means image is public, as long as there's no false statement or implication of endorsement.