I always thought you couldn’t use the word “Fuck” on a label, much less in the name of the product. What gives?
Almost as bad is the ‘artfully aged’. Did they drape a chiffon scarf around the barrel and put soft lighting on it? Get a struggling artist in to paint a landscape on the barrel?
Vulgar, disparaging, or offensive words can be used in trademarks. A few years ago a band called The Slants tried to trademark their band’s name. All members of the band were Asian-American and their point was to “reclaim” a term that had been used as an insult to Asians/Asian-Americans. The USPTO refused to register this trademark on grounds that the term was offensive, and the band appealed all the way to the Supreme Court, which held that “Speech may not be banned on the ground that it expresses ideas that offend.”
So it is legal. Whether such a mark is in good taste is entirely another question.
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Sure it’s legal to trademark, but the TTB has regulatory power over labeling.
I was under the impression that you couldn’t use the word “fuck” in a liquor label.
Is this not the case?
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With that kind of marketing I have to assume it is not good.
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Distilled spirits labels may not contain any statement, design, device, picture, or representation that is obscene or indecent.
Vulgar is OK.
Somehow, that label seems appropriate….
Not too many years back, visiting friends in the Philadelphia area, we bought a (very tasty) bottle of Irish whisky called “Feckin’” Irish.
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