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sábado, 5 de março de 2011

Charlie Sheen Has Industries "Winning"


By Alexandria Hein

Published March 05, 2011

| FoxNews.com




CafePress.com

A photo provided by CafePress.com shows one of the Sheen top seller products.

Charlie Sheen, who smashed the Guinness World Record for soaring past the 1 million follower mark on Twitter in a little over a day, says he’s contemplating using his new popularity to get endorsements and generate revenue.

But there are plenty of others already trying to cash in on Sheen and his "winning" comments.

Since the beginning of Sheen's rants a week ago, products including songs, T-shirts and coffee mugs, ring tones and even a radio station have been produced to capitalize on the mania around him.

SiriusXM Radio announced Friday that it is rolling out "Tiger Blood Radio," a 24-hour limited run channel dedicated to Sheen. As a ratings booster, it says it will examine the news, facts and media frenzy surrounding the actor and his hit CBS series, "Two and a Half Men," which has been cancelled for at least the rest of the season.

And owners of Android phones have the ability to download sound boards of Sheen's quotes and set them as ring tones. The app is currently free.

"It's the newsworthiness that makes the products interesting," said Marc Cowlin of Brand Marketing of CafePress. The website has over 17,000 Sheen products and allows users to upload and design their own Sheen product from T-shirts to bumper stickers. They are being sold from $4 to $25.

“Generally, it takes less than an hour for CafePress designers to jump on a trend and start designing products,” Cowlin told FoxNews.com, adding that four weeks ago there was “little to no interest” in Sheen products.

The online company Zazzle has also seen an influx of Sheen products created on its website. While the company did not comment on the actual amount of increase in sales, it did note a spike in Sheen products after his several high-profile interviews, Michael Karns, director of marketing at Zazzle, told FoxNews.com.

And could it be only be a matter of time before there is even a real cologne to follow Jimmy Fallon's spoof "Winning" cologne on his show "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon"?

Click here to watch a youtube clip of Fallon's spoof

A rep for Elizabeth Arden, the company that endorses Britney Spears' and Mariah Carey's fragrance, didn't say that one was in the works and had no comment yet on future plans to sponsor Sheen. But who knows?

An explanation as for why people are jumping at the opportunity to exploit Sheen's antics could be attributed to his "bad boy" image, Ed Lebar CEO of BrandAsset Consulting, told FoxNews.com.

Lebar suggested that Sheen may work best with companies that would be able to use him as a "bad boy Charlie" or with a brand that promotes "no restraint."

Manufacturers can see what a huge potential he has. After Sheen as his girlfriend Rachel Oberlin tweeted a picture holding Naked Juice and a bottle of Broguiere's Dairy chocolate milk -- for FREE -- sales for the chocolate milk have reportedly spiked.

But Lebar said that the Sheen marketing campaign may be limited to a certain target market: mainly the young, male, urban segment. BrandAsset Consulting for example monitored Janet Jackson's brand pre-the infamous half time show of SuperBowl XXXVIII in 2004, and found that only one particular market; the young male urban segment responded positively post the wardrobe malfunction.

In nearly 10 other target market groups the company found that Jackson took a hit -- something that could happen when the Sheen mania beings to die down.

With Sheen's antics boosting sales for others, the question remains whether he can cash on that success -- either now or in the future.

"It's difficult to generally have a trademark claim. You have to have a trademark on file or some use of the trademark for the actual product or services," Tom Philbrick of AllMark Trademark told FoxNews.com. "If it's just stuff that he's saying, and someone grabs a couple of words and files for a trademark, that's something that they are generally free to do."

Philbrick explained that Sheen could take people using his quotes for products to court, but it's not necessarily a guaranteed win unless he has a pending application or an actual trademark for those terms. "If you put a picture that's something he could definitely sue for," he said.

However it may be looked at, Charlie Sheen has certainly given some industries to feel like they are "winning.





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