This article is more than 1 year old
Palm parody pulled
3Com axes spoof ad attacking its politically incorrect Palm campaign
3Com's battalion of lawyers has forced a Web site featuring a parody of the latest ad campaign from the company's Palm subsidiary. The site featured a piss-take of a series of ads for the new Palm IIIx and V. 3Com's campaign features naked women and has already drawn fire from ordinary Palm users as well as the politically correct. Instead of 3Com's 'Simply Palm' tagline, the parody was headlined 'Simply Porn' and showed a semi-naked woman retaining her dignity (just) with a Palm V. However, 3Com's legal team didn't see the joke and forced the parody site's creator, Jason Kottke, to remove the image or face a trademark infringement suit. Fortunately, he lists a series of sites that are continuing to display the spoof ad. The list is here. Curiously, 3Com took a far less dim view of other parody Palm ads, including the Napalm Pilot, so clearly there's been a bit of a sense of humour breakdown this time. However, Kottke admitted that his ad used a more traditional porn image rather than the 'classical' pose used in the 3Com ad. ®