Virginia Tech memorial merchandise has yet to legally hit stores or
online locations, despite the short-lived prevalence of t-shirts
bearing the Virginia Tech logo and memorial message on e-bay. Obviously
the Virginia Tech Office of Licensing and Trademark Administration has
been hard at work within these past two weeks dealing with requests
from a number of advertising and apparel organizations wishing to honor
the Virginia Tech tragedy. In addition to deciding who should be given
rights to creating Virginia Tech memorial apparel, University Relations
are also hard at work attempting to fight the production and
distribution of unauthorized products not licensed by the university.
In an interview with The Roanoke Times, Christopher Clough, the
University Relations' director of marketing and strategic
communications, said that the "important thing is we want to make sure
this is done appropriately and, obviously, respectfully." As of
Wednesday, Hokies United, a student organization here on campus, was
the only group authorized to create t-shirts. The university is
currently in the process of negotiating with two major manufacturers
trying to produce apparel with the Tech ribbon logo. According to The
Roanoke Times, "Anything with April 16--that is not something that we
want to have on any apparel," Clough said. "We really believe strongly
that we do not want to be defined by that day or have that become
shorthand for the tragic event." Companies with licenses must submit
design product ideas to the Office of Licensing and Trademark
Administration.
The push for commemorative apparel occurred late last week, in the days
following Monday's tragedy. Not just students, but faculty, Virginians
and even those nationwide are looking for a way to show support for the
horrific tragedy that occurred on our campus. It is good that the Tech
Licensing and Trademark Administration is making a serious effort to
keep people without a license from producing t-shirts just to make
quick money. No one but the families of the victims should be making
profits off of this memorabilia. On that same note, the university
needs to be careful with trying too hard to control the message. They
should not be solely responsible for restricting the message that will
be displayed on apparel. The fact that the office is controlling the
production of memorabilia, is a good thing as it keeps people from
unfairly profiting off of our pain. The use of the date, 4-16-07, while
deemed inappropriate by the university, could serve as an important
design for those who feel that last Monday's events were in fact a
defining event in their lives. 4-16-07 is a date that none of us will
ever forget. Keeping it off of shirts and apparel will not erase our
memory of that day's events. Nonetheless, the university should have
the ability to control the product without having to worry about
personal profiteering.
