Hopping Madd

From the Sarasota Herald-Tribune-

SARASOTA -- Personal injury attorney Jeffrey Luhrsen handed out promotional drinking glasses with the Mothers Against Drunk Driving logo on one side and his law firm's hot line on the other.

His Internet advertisements on Google did not identify him as a lawyer but used MADD's name and gave a "victim hot line" number that rang to his Sarasota law office.

Such cross-promotion troubles both attorney ethics experts and the national nonprofit group.

Last week, MADD asked him to stop using the group's name on the glasses to promote his law firm. And Luhrsen recently changed his online ad.

MADD national spokeswoman Misty Moyse said the group exists to help victims, not promote businesses.

Anyone else see it odd that a group against drunk driving would be more upset by a lawyer promoting themselves via drinking glasses with their logo on them, than having its logo on something used for alcohol consumption? After all that is what drinking glasses are used for. You get the distinct impression from the Herald-Tribune problem that is what bothers MADD about this whole affair.

MADD spends much of its legal efforts defending its brand name and logo, said state MADD director Don Murray. He is writing a letter to Luhrsen.

"I'm not comfortable with it," Murray said when first told of the drinking glasses. "It crosses brands and implies endorsement."

Then again, Murray said two days later that it was his idea to put the MADD logo on the glasses, which were made with Luhrsen's logo for a giveaway because he sponsored a MADD golf tournament.

Luhrsen said he has no problem with not giving away any more glasses. He said he volunteered for MADD because Murray asked him to, and does other volunteer work because preventing drunken driving is a "moral imperative."

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MADD does not endorse any particular law firm but has relationships with many of them, including some that sponsor MADD events, Murray said.

MADD has procedures for license agreements for the logo, and fundraising agreements that its legal team monitors, Moyse said.

Bottom line- Is MADD using a proper method to send out its message or did the Herald-Tribune send the wrong message through their reporting of this dispute? The Herald-Tribune made one of the biggest reporting blunders of 2006, earning themselves a Knucklehead award and a nomination for MSM Knucklehead of the Year. So anything is possible.

Linked to- Bullwinkle, Outside the Beltway, Pirate's Cove, Right Wing Nation,