A high street bank is at loggerheads with an accountancy firm over a slogan, “Now there's a thought”, which the banking leader is using in the launch of its latest advertising campaign.
Cooper Parry, the East Midlands-based advisory group alleged that the tagline Barclaycard had planned to employ in its new promotional campaign originally belonged to Parry as it had already been using it for the past five years.
Parry has, thereby, summoned the High court to intervene and declare the strapline, “Now there’s a thought” invalid for use by Barclay. Judgement will be announced around midday on October 21, which clearly spells bad news for the banking giant who might have to call off its advertising campaign only hours before its scheduled launch on Friday, October 21, over the commercial break during Coronation Street on ITV.
Besides, a verdict in Parry’s favour will cost the bank a fortune as the slogan is ready to be covered massively by the media and the press along with as many as 2,000 billboards.
News of this fresh promotional scheme hit the market only a few days ago, with Barclay claiming that it would be the largest campaign carried out lately. To add to its novelty, the bank had planned to launch ordinary actors this time endorsing its services, instead of big names from Hollywood like Samuel L Jackson.
However, Cooper Parry looked understandably upset with the change, as chairman at the accountancy firm, Colin Shaw said, “Barclays' intended use adopts the same style and appearance as that consistently used by us over the past five years. Since we adopted the tagline our business has grown by 50% and we are widely associated with 'Now there's a thought'. So much for the originality of Barclay’s innovative 'new' image.”
In fact, chief executive at Parry, Jeremy Bowler acknowledged that the firm had been left with no choice “but to act” as it was “devastated”. He said, “We are frustrated and annoyed that a bank that purports to have such a high regard for its corporate responsibilities should act in this way.”
Meanwhile, Barclays said that it got in touch with Cooper Parry about 15 days back as it learnt about the latter using the strapline. Barclays said, “We contacted them and listened to their concerns. We held discussions with Cooper Parry with the aim of coming to an agreement whereby both companies could continue to use this strap line.”
The banking group added that it was “disappointed” to have been unsuccessful in solving the situation “without Cooper Parry feeling the need to resort to legal action. We will now have to wait for the decision of the courts on Friday.”
Posted
on : Fri, 21 Oct 2005 10:55 GMT | Banking News
By : Paula Jenkins
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