Super Bowl commercials demonstrate the power of brands

Now that this year’s Super Bowl® is in the books (and my prediction of a Packer’s jinx due to their recent trademark filings for TITLETOWN failed miserably), we can focus on the best commercials from the game!

The most popular and buzz-worthy ads generally involved celebrity appearances or cross overs that show the power of brands and the trademarks that do the dirty work of protecting them. Here are some examples:

• My favorite commercial was for the Volkswagen Passat featuring a child dressed as Darth Vader. The Star Wars franchise is still  strong many years after its creation and I am sure that LucasFilm was paid nicely for the use of Darth (Droid® is also a LucasFilm trademark). Darth Vader, like all Star Wars characters, is well protected:
  • The voice of Darth Vader is a registered trademark
    • Description of Mark: The mark consists of the sound of rhythmic mechanical human breathing created by breathing through a scuba tank regulator.
    • Goods: Costume masks; voice altering toys; toy computers; handheld playthings, namely, toy action figures and hand held units for playing electronic games; dashboard driver figurines, namely, bobble head dolls and modeled plastic toy figurines; Halloween and masquerade costumes incorporating masks
    • Note – the sound of a Light Saber® is also registered
  • – Costumes, namely, Halloween costumes, masquerade costumes, and costumes for use in role-playing games; costume helmets, namely, Halloween costume helmets, masquerade costume helmets and costume helmets for use in role-playing games; Toy action figures and statuettes; collectible toy action figures; collectible toy helmets
  • – Costumes, namely, Halloween costumes, masquerade costumes, and costumes for use in role-playing games; costume helmets, namely, Halloween costume helmets, masquerade costume helmets and costume helmets for use in role-playing games; Toy action figures and statuettes; collectible toy action figures; collectible toy helmets
  • DARTH VADER – toy figures
    

• Kenny G starred in a Audi commercial. Kenny G might be poked fun at (and to his credit, embrace it), but he is no dope – he owns several registered trademarks including:
  • KENNY G – musical entertainment services
• Eminem the musician/rapper starred in two different commercials. His brand is also protected by several trademark registrations:
  • EMINEM – entertainment services, namely, the presentation of live musical performances
• GoDaddy.com again featured a racy ad, this time starring Joan Rivers. Her brand is protected too:
  • JOAN RIVERS – jewelry, watches

To view these commercials and others, see Spike.com

What was your favorite commercial?