“Super Bowl” a Taboo Term For Some Businesses

Many businesses rely on euphemisms for the Super Bowl to avoid paying the NFL

For some retailers, the term “Super Bowl” has become a taboo.

As reported today by Yahoo! News, many advertisers rely on euphemisms such as “the big game,” “game day in Dallas” and “championship party” when trying to hop on the money train that the Super Bowl brings annually; unsurprisingly, money is also at the center of this oddity, which is currently on display all over town.

As the report explains, companies employ such watered-down references to the Super Bowl to dodge paying the NFL large sums for the copyrighted terms:

Advertisers pay huge amounts of money to become an official sponsor of the NFL. In doing so, they buy the right to use league logos, game footage, branding and the trademarked phrases "Super Bowl" and "Super Sunday." Companies that don't pay the premium resort to "ambush marketing" to get around this, hence generic phrases like "big game" and the use of non-NFL jerseys and game footage.

Generally, the league will reproach such businesses via a cease and desist letter, but that won’t stop those around Dallas from seeing an influx of ads trumpeting “the big game” and other terms that hint around Super Bowl XLV. As Yahoo! also explains, the media is protected from copyright laws, meaning that I can write the following without paying a dime:

Super Bowl, Super Bowl, Super Bowl, Super Bowl.

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