I know companies protect their trademarks and copyrights to build and develop their brands to make them more marketable and increase their value to advertisers. But… I don’t understand why the NFL says that people, radio stations, TV stations, etc. CANNOT say “Watch the Super Bowl” – instead, you have to say “Watch ‘The Big Game’.” I recently found out the same is true for FIFA’s “World Cup”. You can’t actually say “World Cup” when referring to their event.
Doesn’t it just cause confusion among fans and followers? Which “big game” is being referred to? ‘The big game’ between rival high schools? Or ‘the big game’ that puts your volleyball team into the championship? OH.. you mean ‘the big game’ between two football teams that now happens in early February. And what about the World Cup? Does FIFA really think soccer/football fans will get it confused with some other international soccer event? So, now I’m calling the World Cup the “Global Cup”, since we’re not allow to say “World Cup” when talking about it on a website.
The NFL brought out the stupid idea of NOT say “Super Bowl” many years ago, and I’ve been annoyed by it ever since. As long as businesses aren’t printing “Super Bowl” on merchandise, anyone should be able to publicly say and reference the name of the contest being playing. And I don’t buy the ridiculous idea that by printing/saying the name diminishes the value of the name. Obviously I’m not as smart as the marketing people at FIFA or the NFL who come up with these stupid ideas – but I do know that people “brand awareness” counts for a lot. That’s why people ask for Coca-Cola, and not ‘brown sugar water’.