Clark C. Griffith is a Minneapolis-based attorney specializing in sports team and league operations and litigation. Mr. Griffith is also the former owner, Executive Vice-President and Treasurer of the Minnesota Twins Baseball Club, and former Chairman of Major League Baseball Properties.
In this ABA Forum, a panel of attorneys and brand marketing experts discusses the convergence of advertising, product placement, and brand integration within entertainment, the arts, and sports. Moderated by Minneapolis sports attorney Clark C. Griffith, the panel also includes Full Circle Entertainment President and CEO Robert Riesenberg, art and architecture attorney Jessica Darraby, and advertising and entertainment attorney Rick Kurnit. Each offers a distinct perspective on the legal challenges of cross marketing as it applies to his or her area of expertise, ranging on topics such as brand control of creative content, commercial speech restrictions, IP law, and the pros and cons of federal regulations.
In this clip taken from the 2007 ABA forum entitled “How to Cross Market Your Clients Across Multimedia Platforms in the Entertainment, Arts, and Sports Industries,” attorney Clark C. Griffith refers to an earlier discussion regarding Ford Motors’ sponsorship of an episode of the Fox television show “24,” in which the company’s sports utility vehicles appeared throughout the episode, and in which one of them survived an accident without flipping over. He then poses the hypothetical question to attorney Rick Kurnit as to whether there would be legal concerns if, within this Ford-sponsored episode, a Toyota vehicle were to flip over in an accident. Kurnit addresses how this would cross the line with regard to advertising substantiation restrictions.
In this clip taken from the 2007 ABA forum entitled “How to Cross Market Your Clients Across Multimedia Platforms in the Entertainment, Arts, and Sports Industries,” attorney Clark C. Griffith explains the legal implications of various types of cross marketing deals in sports, including individual athlete brand endorsements, major league and college team brand partnerships, and Olympic athlete deals. Griffith gives an overview of the history of cross marketing in sports, from players’ images on tobacco and candy products in the late nineteenth century all the way to the present, in which television and the Internet offer virtually unlimited opportunities for sports content.
