Borrowing The Brand

I've never fully understood the argument of those who want to control how their brand names are used online. I see why they want to prevent others from buying their brands as keywords, or from using their brands in search optimization, but I can't quite follow the logic that they believe should give them that right.

I just watched a TV commercial for DHL in which 25 seconds out of 30 are filled with Fedex and UPS trucks (and the drivers, uniforms, and logos that go with them), racing through the streets to reach a delivery address before each other. The punch line comes in the last few seconds, when they both arrive to find the DHL guy already finishing his deliveries at that address.

Makes buying your competitors' keywords look mighty tame, doesn't it?

Posted by Craig Danuloff at July 8, 2004 10:16 PM