#1643 2017 · Velcro Companies · Consumer materials / trademark law
Velcro's lawyers made a music video begging people to stop saying 'Velcro'
the problem
The more successful a brand name becomes as everyday speech, the closer it comes to losing legal trademark protection
background
Hook-and-loop fastener technology, invented by Swiss engineer George de Mestral in the 1940s and commercialized under the trademark VELCRO, became so widely used and so widely known by that single name that, by the 2010s, the generic term "velcro" had entered everyday speech as the default word for any hook-and-loop fastener regardless of manufacturer, exactly the pattern of public generic usage that had previously caused courts to cancel other companies' trademarks entirely, including Otis Elevator's loss of the word "Escalator" in 1950.
Velcro Companies' in-house legal team recognized the same genericide risk directly threatening their trademark and chose an unconventional response: rather than pursuing quiet cease-and-desist letters or dry public notices, in September 2017 the company released an original musical video featuring actors playing Velcro's own lawyers, singing directly to the public and asking them to use the term "hook and loop" instead of "velcro" for generic fasteners, explicitly explaining that continued generic use could cost the company its trademark.
what everyone would do
Pursue the conventional trademark enforcement approach: send cease-and-desist letters to competitors and retailers who use "velcro" generically, issue formal legal notices, and rely on the deterrent effect of enforcement actions rather than a public-facing campaign, treating genericide risk as strictly a legal matter to manage privately.
what they saw
Otis lost the word 'escalator' by letting the public use it generically for decades. Velcro's own lawyers saw the same fate coming and sang about it — a video begging customers to say 'hook and loop' instead.
the move
The video framed the company's own legal team as the on-screen protagonists, openly explaining trademark law's genericide doctrine to a mass consumer audience in a comedic, self-aware format, an approach almost no company had previously used to address a trademark dispute publicly. The video went viral, drawing more than 4 million views according to Velcro's own CEO, and generated extensive coverage in both mainstream outlets, including CBS News, and legal trade press, including the ABA Journal, turning what would ordinarily be a dry corporate legal notice into a widely shared piece of entertainment. Velcro Companies later released a second video responding, with apparent good humor, to the volume of critical and mocking feedback the first video received, further extending the campaign's reach. The company reported the campaign was followed by a measurable drop in generic trademark misuse, and the case became a frequently cited example in intellectual property and marketing circles of successfully using humor and self-deprecation, rather than legal threats, to address a genericide risk before it reached the point of formal trademark cancellation litigation, the outcome Otis Elevator's Escalator trademark had not survived decades earlier.
why it works
The campaign worked because it converted an inherently adversarial message, stop using our word wrong, into shareable entertainment by having the company's own lawyers, the least expected messengers for a comedic music video, deliver it directly and self-deprecatingly. This disarmed the audience's usual resistance to corporate legal messaging, and the virality itself achieved something cease-and-desist letters structurally cannot: direct, voluntary behavior change from millions of ordinary consumers who had no legal obligation to comply and who Velcro could never have individually contacted through conventional enforcement.
the payoff
Velcro's 2017 lawyer-sung music video, asking customers to say 'hook and loop' instead, drew 4 million views and cut generic misuse.
where it breaks
This approach depends on a brand's legal team and marketing function successfully executing a genuinely entertaining, well-produced piece of content; a poorly made or tone-deaf attempt at humor around a legal threat risks reading as tone-deaf corporate messaging rather than charming self-awareness, generating mockery without the intended behavior change. It also only addresses genericide risk while some public trademark association still exists to protect; a term that has already been ruled generic in court, as "escalator" was for Otis, cannot be reclaimed by a subsequent awareness campaign no matter how well executed.
what came after
Became a widely cited case study in intellectual property and marketing circles for using self-aware humor rather than legal threats to address trademark genericide risk publicly, and is frequently taught alongside historical genericide losses like Otis's Escalator trademark as the successful counterexample.
references
- [1]Lawyers for Velcro use music video to offer thanks for angry feedback on trademark pleaABA Journal, 2017abajournal.com
- [2]Velcro Video Asks Consumers To Say 'Hook & Loop'CBS News, 2017cbsnews.com