Tushnet, Rebecca --- "Truth and advertising: the Lanham Act and commercial speech doctrine" [2008] ELECD 171; in Dinwoodie, B. Graeme; Janis, D. Mark (eds), "Trademark Law and Theory" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2008)

Book Title: Trademark Law and Theory

Editor(s): Dinwoodie, B. Graeme; Janis, D. Mark

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781845426026

Section: Chapter 11

Section Title: Truth and advertising: the Lanham Act and commercial speech doctrine

Author(s): Tushnet, Rebecca

Number of pages: 30

Extract:

10 Reconciling trademark rights and expressive
values: how to stop worrying and learn to
love ambiguity
Rochelle Cooper Dreyfuss*



I'm a Barbie girl, in my Barbie world
Life is plastic, it's fantastic . . .1




2

When I campaign alone, I'm approachable. Women talk to me, complain, but
when I'm with Ted I'm a Barbie doll.3


* Pauline Newman Professor of Law, New York University School of Law. I
would like to thank Jesse Dyer, NYU Class of 2008, for his superb research assistance
and the Filomen and D'Agostino and Max E. Greenberg Research Fund for its finan-
cial support. This chapter was shaped, in part, by the national responses I received in
my capacity as Trademark Reporter for the Association Littéraire et Artistique
Internationale (ALAI) Study Session on Copyright & Freedom of Expression
(Barcelona 2006).
1 AQUA, Barbie Girl, on AQUARIUM (MCA Records 1997).
2 The Distorted Barbie: X-files Barbie, http://www.detritus.net/projects/barbie/
("What about all those aspects of our society that are not represented by Barbie? Let's
open up the closet doors and let out the repressed real-world Barbies; Barbie's
extended family of disowned and inbred rejects; politically correct Barbies that cele-
brate the ignored and disenfranchised.").
3 MARCIA CHELLIS, THE JOAN KENNEDY STORY: LIVING WITH THE KENNEDYS
262 Trademark law and theory

The waitress rallies quickly. "I'm Barbie. No last name . . . I sign it like this,
with a little trademark sign after it." She picks ...