David, I didn't see the Ad that Gary referred to in yesterday's Hartford (Connecticut) Courant, but this morning's Business section's lead article is about toy ripoffs!
It's a front page, 2 page article with a banner that includes a large copy of your Don't Get Hooked by Imposters ad that "appeared in several trade publications at the recent toy fair in New York" and right next to it is a color photo of "imposter" Sport Fishing.
Below the photo is the caption:
"Radica USA, which patented the hand-held video game Bass Fishin', warns against imposters. But can you tell the difference between the real thing in the ad and the half-price knockoff on the right?"
Excerpt from the article:
Copycats, Copydogs, Copyfrogs
By MATTHEW KAUFFMAN
Radica USA, a Dallas toy company, has had a real problem with its Bass Fishin' hand-held video fishing game. Maybe you've never heard of Bass Fishin'. But counterfeiters have. ''Don't Get Hooked By Imposters,'' the company wrote in an ad that appeared in several trade publications at the toy fair in New York, the industry's biggest show.
In the ad, Radica said demand for the game ''has given rise to knockoffs and counterfeit products in the market. We intend to protect our high-quality game and our related intellectual property rights by aggressively pursuing those involved in this activity.'' Graham Cotton, Radica's vice president of sales, said Radica began seeing knockoffs of the game - identical in every way except the company logo - soon after it was introduced in June 1996. He knows he's not alone in the industry. ''It tends to be that anything that's highly successful, there's going to be something phony that follows it,'' Cotton said.
Knockoffs and counterfeits find a market for an obvious reason: They're cheaper. The Bass Fishin' game costs $25 at Toys 'R' Us. A nearly exact copy of an earlier design of the game is selling this week for $9.99 at Ocean State Job Lot. (''Similar to the one on TV!'' the store's ad says.)
news.courant.com
This link brings you to the complete text of the article, which, as I mentioned, in the actual newspaper has a very large picture of Radica's warning Ad and a color picture of the knockoff. |
