I forget who the advertisment was for, I saw it last night while watching Must See It Again TV™. It was an ad for a discount clothing store (Marshalls, TJ Maxx, et al) during which they stated something to the effect of "We can’t tell you the brand names, but the prices are great (that’s very loosely translated).
So that brings up a couple of questions for me:
Can they really not say that they have Levi’s or whatever else?
or
Can no retailer mention the names in their ads, and Marshalls or whomever is just playing clever tricks on us all?
A assume since they are buying the goods at discount and can undercut the licensed distributers they can’t advertize the fact. Imaging if you were a Patagonia reseller who is buying the goods at the regular wholesale price who now has to compete with a discount retailer who paid less for overstock or seconds.
The regular distributers sell the majority of a labels product, you can’t afford to piss them off or make them less profitable.
I think it might have more to do with the nature of how these stores get their merchandise. They don’t have the same steady supply of “brand name” clothing coming into their stores. Besides, I don’t think all the stores get the same items, but the advertising is for all the stores.
Therefore, if they were to advertise a particular brand and you went to your local Marshall’s and they didn’t have those Levi’s you say advertised… well, in today’s litigation-happy society someone might try to sue them for false advertising or even accuse them of “bait and switch”.
If you go to these places often enough you’ll notice that they don’t carry the same things all the time. It’s a potluck kind of thing. Some days you can get lucky and find really nice clothing, some days it’s little better than a thrift shop.
Actually, another reason is, you may still have to PAY the name brand manufacturers to use their product name, even if you’re selling them.
My father sold satellite receivers back in the '80’s, and while the local cable company could advertise that they gave you Disney, HBO, etc…my dad could tell you in person, but in a print ad he could only say “cartoons, movies, etc” because he did not pay Disney and HBO for the rights to use their names. And yes, this was pre-descramblers…anyone with a “dish” could see these channels for free. OTOH, the cable company charged extra for them.
Weird. I know that my company (no names, please!) pays our retailers to use our name in our ads for their products-or rather, applies ‘advertising discounts’ to our invoices for the merchandise they buy from us to sell to their customers based on their ability to document their use of our name in their ads. It’s spelled out in detail in their contracts-x amount of discount for using our company name/logo in a print ad, subject to our size/layout requirements; y for using our name in a 30-second radio spot, etc.
Actually, that could be it, too-the retailer may not want to use the name in their ads because they haven’t been able to negotiate appropriate compensation. Why advertise Acme Inc. along with your company if Acme Inc. isn’t paying part of the cost?