FredEx
by , (3 comments)
Here’s a big shocker: Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver and resident loudmouth Freddie Mitchell is in hot water with FedEx for his use of a (slightly) modified version of their logo on his website, and on merchandise he sells.
I stumbled across the site a while back while looking for some information to use in trash talking one of my buddies who’s a big Eagles fan. The FredEx logo is splashed all over the page, which struck me as kind of funny, actually. Mitchell is a secondary receiver, and not exactly someone who would have a lot of fans or even groupies. He’s just not that good. I mean, who’s actually going to buy that stuff? Harmless, really.
Its even kind of funny. This is verbatim from the front page. I swear. “From the man that helped bring you 4th and 26, The Peoples Belt, and The Frohawk: ‘FredEx’ aka ‘The Peoples Champ’ aka ‘Hollywood’ would like to thank everybody for checking out his official website. ‘I want to thank my fans for their support and give them an arena to really get to know me’, says Freddie at his website launch party before adding, ‘and I’d like to also thank my hands…I love my hands.’”
Wha wha….what? A website launch party? Wow, I missed the boat on that one. I had a celebratory can of beer when my page finally was done and online, but not a party with celebrities and cocktails and fancy lighting and tablecloths and butlers named Belvedere and valet parking and stuff. I mean, that sounds like a halfway decent time. I feel like such a tool now.
At least I didn’t rip off a famous logo and change it ever so slightly, and then sell merchandise with said logo. I suppose Freddie figured only those folks at his website launch party would ever know about it. No problem!
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But then dear Freddie started running his mouth. In the week leading up to the Super Bowl, he was the loudest, and most ridiculous, of the trash talkers. I mean to tell you, this stuff was classic. He was on with Dan Patrick on ESPN Radio, and admitted he didn’t even know the names of the defensive backs on the Patriots that he was challenging. He only knew their jersey numbers. When Patrick quizzed him, good old Freddie even got that wrong. He did know one New England player — Rodney Harrison — and called him out by name. “I got something for you Harrison!”
Yep, he sure did. Harrison, a defensive back, had one more catch than Freddie, as he intercepted the Eagles QB Donovan McNabb twice, while Freddie had just one reception.
Anyway, that’s off the topic. All that trash talk brought attention to a guy who only had 22 catches in the regular season, and drove traffic to his website that would not otherwise have even known who he was.
One such person was the people at FedEx, the official shipper of the NFL.
According to ESPN.com:
“The delivery service will approach the matter ‘in a courteous manner,’ FedEx spokesman Jim McCluskey told the Philadelphia Inquirer, noting that FedEx is the official shipper of the NFL. McCluskey added, however, ‘If we do find a violation of our brand, we’ll ask that it stop.’
At least to the untrained eye, the ‘FredEx’ logo looks as though someone simply added an ‘r’ to the trademarked FedEx logo, even including the subtle arrow in the “Ex” portion — a detail that caught the design world’s eye when Lindon Leader created the logo in 1994, according to the Inquirer.”
Nice of The Worldwide Leader In Sports to throw a little design history in their coverage, ain’t it?
Anyway, Freddie can probably expect a call from FedEx soon, and it will probably be a little more than just trash talk.
Comments (3)
Adrian said:
Is that an “fr” ligature?
I wonder if FedEx will ask him to stop using the logo, or if they will ask him to stop using the nickname all together. Wouldn’t this fall into the parody category? I don’t think there is anything FedEx can do to stop this.
Posted on February 11, 2005
Donovan Beery said:
I would assume it falls under parody, but as FedEx is an NFL sponsor, and FredEx makes his money in the NFL, you probably won’t see this logo anymore.
Posted on February 12, 2005
Steven K. said:
I do find it hilarious that a second-rate receiver would “adopt” the logo of a top-rated delivery service. Not even similar positions. Thanks for the entry!
Posted on February 16, 2005