JibJab Sues White Castle Over Viral Campaign

If you're going to kick off a viral marketing campaign and plan on using a popular viral platform as the cornerstone of that campaign, you better actually have that platform's permission. Otherwise, you're going to have a problem. So why White Castle would use "JibJab" in its advertising message on Facebook and Twitter without ever partnering with JibJab is a true mystery.

You can't try to spread your message virally by piggybacking on another viral brand and expect them not to find out about it. And this wasn't just a mistake. White Castle used the JibJab name in a video it made, then tweeted "5 minutes of @JibJab #fame?" and referenced JibJab in the copy of its Facebook advertisements. It also apparently depicted cartoon characters that looked like the JibJab mascots.

JibJab, like any good company in this day and age, monitors all references to its name and when it saw White Castle plastering it everywhere, it wasn't amused. The company, which rose to stardom in 2004 when viral videos were still a new thing and its parody musical about the presidential campaign captured the nation's attention, has filed a lawsuit to block White Castle from using the JibJab name.

[via paidContent]