Sure, you’ve been to New Orleans for Mardi Gras and watched floats glide by and walked the thronged streets afterward with a Hurricane in your hand and your beads around your neck and stopped in to hear “St. James Infirmary” from the Preservation Hall Jazz Band yet again.

While you may have seen a lot of things in N'awlins, you probably haven’t seen a Mardi Gras parade that has you looking down toward the ground instead of up at the incredible work floating by.

For the last three years, a so-called micro-krewe called 'tit Rex (short for 'Petit Rex,' it's pronounced "tea rex" and a pun on the dinosaur name) has put on a lovely walking parade of gorgeous floats made from shoeboxes that beautifully mimic the full-size ones you’ve seen elsewhere in the city.

The floats' designers and artists walk proudly by their creations to be sure they stay on course and don’t get destroyed.

The humble 'tit Rex Krewe has a problem, though. The Rex Organization, one of the city’s biggest Mardi Gras krewes, has all the rights to the word “Rex” in association with the event — and they're not flattered at having a mini-me using their name.

According to The Times-Picayune, Rex wants the walking krewe to ditch its name pronto, before the next Mardi Gras rolls around.Continue reading...

Whether you are looking for or trying to avoid pornographic material on the Internet, the .xxx domain name that’ll kick off publicly next year will certainly help you travel whichever path you’ve chosen.

But before ICM Registry, the company in charge of the domain launch, opens up its doors for any Dick and Jane to register whatever website URL names he or she can dream up, it is asking for companies to pre-register names or apply to block registry of their brands, according to the Washington Post.

The domain name registrar even took out full-page ads in the Los Angeles Times and Financial Times this week to promote the launch of .xxx.Continue reading...

Everybody is hurting for cash — even the largest city in Canada.

Last week, Toronto politicians were presented with a proposal to “revise and ramp up its corporate naming and sponsorship efforts,” according to the Toronto Star.

The city’s budget committee had asked for the report this past January. In the report, the authors point out that Calgary, Winnipeg, Chicago, and New York “proactively solicit offers to buy naming rights,” the Star reports.

Toronto currently only has a few named spaces, including Scotiabank Nuit Blanche, the Franklin Children’s Garden at Centre Island, and the BMO Field soccer stadium. In March, an offer to rename the city hall "Tigits Hall" made the local news — alarming residents in the process.Continue reading...

Americans have the reputation of being lawsuit-happy, but it seems like the French might be catching up. Luckily for Renault and any company wishing to give a brand a person’s name, justice has prevailed.

A French judge has thrown out a suit from Lawyer David Koubbi on behalf of two girls named Zoe Renault (ages 2 and 8) that Renault naming its new electric car Zoe would cause them harm from teasing and name-calling. And not only them, but the other 35,000 Zoes in France as well. Talk about a class-less action suit!

"Can you imagine what little Zoes would have to endure on the playground, and even worse, when they get a little bit older and someone comes up to them in a bar and says, 'Can I see your air bags?' or 'Can I shine your bumper?'" Koubbi told The Associated Press. Hence the Gallic gall of the suit. But the judge ruled that parents would have a case only if they proved the car name would cause the girls "certain, direct and current harm."Continue reading...

The Chicago Blackhawks could win the National Hockey League's Stanley Cup tonight, when it faces the Philadelphia Flyers. One of these teams boasts a name and logo that many find insulting and insensitive. Can you guess which one?

A sports columnist at The Star sums up the possible hockey champion's branding problem: "At a time when sports leagues and schools around North America are either debating the dubious value of having native peoples used as mascots and nicknames or getting rid of those mascots and nicknames entirely, the NHL and the Chicago Blackhawks seem awfully casual about it, supremely confident that no one will dare question the racial sensitivity of the large aboriginal likeness that serves as the logo of the hockey club."Continue reading...

What’s in a name change? Sometimes, not enough. Xe Services, the military contractor which recently rebranded from Blackwater, is up for sale.

Former Navy SEAL Erik Prince, the company's reclusive founder and owner, is tired of the constant criticism. In a comment to AP, he said: "Performance doesn't matter in Washington, just politics." 

His remark was an oblique swipe at Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, who recently wanted the Pentagon to prohibit Xe from winning a $1 billion contract to train Afghan police.

Xe has tried to reinvent itself and salvage some modicum of public and political reputation since the 2007 Baghdad debacle that resulted in seventeen deaths, a livid Iraqi government, and federal charges against those Blackwater guards involved. Those charges were subsequently dismissed due to prosecutorial mishandling of evidence.Continue reading...

With hyperbolic lines like "You have to go a long way to find anything as disgusting as a night on the town with Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger..." and "the real pariah is the lone athlete not carrying Nike’s water," The New York Times breaks out the soapbox and climbs on up.

NYT's Opinionator blog this week, in a post titled "Nike's Women Problem" by Timothy Egan, savages Nike for maintaining ties to athletes embroiled in sex scandals, asking, "What, exactly does it take for Nike to dump a jock?"

It's a terribly simplified rant with a poorly-thought-out title. (Way to stay classy and make it about women; isn't it a "man" problem?) But does the author have a point when he wonders, "Perhaps a certain creepy cred does help move product?"Continue reading...

So you’re surveying the shelf at the grocery store and have the choice between “Slap Ya Mama” and “Punch Ya Daddy” seasonings, made by two different companies. Which do you choose? Is the packaging confusing? The makers of "Slap Ya Mama" Cajun seasoning, Walker & Sons, thought yes, and filed a trademark infringement suit last year.

The spice war recently reached boiling proportions and a federal judge ordered "Punch Ya Daddy" to change its logo and packaging, which was deemed too similar. It was determined to be damaging the plaintiff's business. The name, however, is fine. The judge ruled that “Slap Ya Mama” is a common term in the Bayou, while “Punch Ya Daddy,” a name concocted by a child, is not.Continue reading...