Chrysler Suing Retailer For Using "Imported From Detroit" Tagline

Chrysler’s Super Bowl tagline is spawning a cottage industry, and the car company—which is already selling its own “Imported from Detroit” clothing line—is not exactly jumping for joy. The big car makers have slapped the founders of Pure Detroit, (a three-store retailer that sells locally inspired merchandise) with a hefty lawsuit claiming the t-shirts they're selling with the tagline is an infringement on their trademark...blah blah.  Apparently these shirts have been the retailer's golden ticket - their hottest selling item.  And now thanks to the lawsuit - the publicity will have sent sales through the roof (unless of course the lawyers got their mitts on the shirts first and have purged them from the shelves).

From my corner (I live not 50 miles from Detroit),  I don't think I've ever seen an ad revitalize the pride and passions of a region that's been pounded in more ways than I can count.

From a business perspective, I understand why Chrysler is trying to keep the lid on their now famous trademark - and it will be interesting to see whether they'll actually succeed.  Wearing my regular old baseball cap - why can't the automaker share the love with the rest of Detroit and then figure out some smart advertising ways to ride on the adoption wave of all that free advertising (I've got plenty of ideas and no doubt their top shot marketing brains do too).  Surely Chrysler would get better press for being "pro-Detroit" (which after all is what that whole campaign is all about), than from being just another law-suit-slapping-greedy-money-making big corporate....hmm I think Chrysler's execs may have made a seriously wrong move here.

Here's a link to see the Chrysler-Eminem ad again http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKL254Y_jtc