Would you ever confuse breast milk with pork? The National Pork Board apparently thinks people will and has threatened to sue my friend, Jennifer Laycock, over a shirt that is being sold to help raise money for the non-profit milk banks. The shirt reads “The Other White Milk.”
The National Pork Board feels it violates their trademark “the other white meat.” Give me a break! How does pork have anything to do with milk or breastfeeding for that matter?
Jennifer actually sells quite a few shirts with humorous slogans such as “Milk on Tap” and “That’s my baby’s lunch you’re staring at” all with the goal of helping to support her Lactivist project which is essentially a blog about breastfeeding and human milk banking. It’s mostly a gathering place for breastfeeding moms to come and share their thoughts and experiences and to keep up to date on the latest issues in the fight for the rights of a child to eat in public.
The Pork Board has demanded that Jennifer remove the shirt and the image of the shirt be removed from any site, that she destroys any shirts that exist with the logo and that she not use the phrase in a commercially profitable way at any point in the future. They also make this ridiculous statement in their demands:
“In addition, your use of this slogan also tarnishes the good reputation of the National Pork Board’s mark in light of your apparent attempt to promote the use of breastmilk beyond merely for infant consumption, such as with the following slogans on your website in close proximity to the slogan “The Other White Milk.” “Dairy Diva,” “Nursing, Nature’s Own Breast Enhancement,” “Eat at Mom’s, fast-fresh-from the breast,” and “My Milk is the Breast.”
Jennifer has the full details on her blog in a post entitled “Overzealous Big Pork Stomps on Breastfeeding Blogger.” She is asking the blogosphere to bring attention to theses pork bullies absurd requests of which I am more than happy to comply.
Want to help? If you have a blog, feel free to write about it as well as link to original post. You may also wish to contact The National Pork Board directly and voice your displeasure with them trying to bully people around. Personally I don’t think they have a legal leg to stand on and are simply using legal intimidation to try to bully Jennifer to meet their demands.
David Wallace, co-founder and CEO of SearchRank, is a recognized expert in the industry of search and social media marketing. Since 1997, David has been involved in developing successful search engine and social media marketing campaigns for large and small businesses.
