Velcro's lawyers made a music video begging people to stop saying 'Velcro'

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.

Velcro's lawyers made a comedic music video begging people to say 'hook and loop', turning a legal warning into shareable entertainment that changed behavior.

The comedic video disarmed resistance to corporate legal messaging.

Using lawyers as singers made the message unexpected and shareable.

Virality reached millions of consumers that legal letters could never contact.

The campaign explained the stakes clearly, inviting voluntary compliance.

When a legal threat depends on public behavior, a self-aware, humorous campaign can change behavior more effectively than threatening letters.

Velcro's 2017 lawyer-sung music video, asking customers to say 'hook and loop' instead, drew 4 million views and cut generic misuse. 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.