Testing your campaign ideas out online can get you more than useful feedback, it might just save you from a complicated legal issue later.

The Art Van Furniture company recently had some ideas on how to redesign the look of their delivery trucks. They posted the ideas and asked people to vote.

One early choice was a truck that showed a leather sofa emerging from a partially unwrapped candy bar.

The candy bar looked a bit too familiar to the folks at the Hershey’s chocolate company. According to a Hershey’s’ lawyer, Art Van was trying to cash in on the “substantial fame” of the Hershey’s chocolate bar.

Art Van doesn’t agree with the federal judge who ruled in Hershey’s’ favor, but they did pull the option off their Web site. They may still appeal, but at least now they know this is an issue long before these rolling billboards hit the street.

Because of the online voting idea, they’ve avoided a potentially serious legal issue – and gotten plenty of free publicity for their campaign and their Web site to boot.

That’s always a nice treat to unwrap.

Article Tags: legal | online voting | publicity

Filed under: Digital Marketing, Graphic design, Interactive, New Marketing, News article, Propaganda