I have decided that there needs to be a new term invented.

There exists a trend, whereby cheap knockoff/counterfeit products are branded with a known/popular logo. I’m not talking just your average knockoffs here, where they’re trying to pass it off as the genuine article. I’m talking the wildly inappropriate ones, like a Facebook-branded belt, or Gmail soap, or toothpaste with the Nike swoosh. That sort of thing. They may tinker the name or image slightly, but still, it’s very blatantly an attempt to cash in on a popular product.

I kind of like ‘Logo-Crashing’ for this. Lets you know that the marketable brand image has been appropriated with all the subtlety of a frat boy guzzling drinks at a garden party. Though that sentance made me think of another: ‘Brand Appropriation’. Nice and technical, but succinct.

Other ideas for what to call this?

Besides the obvious “Theft”...

Instead of “Knock-offs” (Which are the aforementioned counterfeits) perhaps “Knock-ons”.

I think the common vernacular is “crap.”

I’m not a legal expert so don’t quote me on this (apart from any in thread quoting that is). I’d say it sounds like a simple copyright infringement, where they use somebody else’s intellectual property without the appropriate consent.

Well, yes, there’s perfectly good *legal* terms, but I’m talking abotu somethign for the rest of us to call it, that specifically references the instance where such infringement is applied to something wildly bizarre.

In this case, it would be more along the lines of trademark infringement, I think.

Robin Bobcat - 21 March 2012 03:30 PM

Well, yes, there’s perfectly good *legal* terms, but I’m talking abotu somethign for the rest of us to call it, that specifically references the instance where such infringement is applied to something wildly bizarre.

Trade way-off-the-mark infringement?

When in doubt, call it Fred.

Sharruma - 22 March 2012 12:56 AM

When in doubt, call it Fred.

Hmmm.  For “Fake “Real” Endorsement Design” ?

Liego. The lying logo.