I am the Super Bowl thy Super Bowl, and thou shalt not have any Super Bowls before me. Or beside me. Or behind me. Or any other place whatsoever.
I distinctly heard an ad the other day that mentioned the “NFL Championship Game.”
Why would they need to put that in there? Is there any actual competition? If anything I think it would promote the Super [BEEP].
Duckster has set out the rule, but the key here is the exception to the rule, as Ascenray notes. Most of the examples cited probably fall well within the fair use exception to the rights of the trademark owner. However, radio stations don’t want trouble and abide by the NFL’s requests, even if they may not be legally enforceable.
Ambush marketing was a big problem during the 96 Olympics, and the NFL’s statements about this are accurate. However, the radio station example is probably fair use and not ambush marketing.
Doesn’t Fox, NASCAR or some other network advertise the Daytona 500 as “The Super Bowl of Racing”?
Wouldn’t the NFL get their panties in a bunch over that?
I’ve heard even sillier commercials on the radio here. One of the payday loan companies will on occasion give away concert tickets, but because they aren’t an official sponsor of the concerts they always say things like "come in and register and you could win tickets to hear the band that plays “Dude Looks Like a Lady,” or whatever song happens to apply.