Favorite Supreme Court decisions


I can never decide between Zachinni v. Scripps-Howard or Sid & Marty Krofft v. McDonald's.

The first, the ground-breaking Personality Rights decision stemming from a lawsuit brought against the media corporation Scripps-Howard by human cannonball Hugo Zachinni. The court upheld the position that the corporation's first and fourteenth amendment rights did not supersede the plaintiff's ownership of his act. This ruling later proved invaluable to such titans of the arts as Vanna White.

The second case, Krofft v. McDonald's, went deeper into the Arts, simultaneously affecting the world of Saturday morning children's programming and that ot fast food advertising. An agency, bidding on a McDonald's contract, approached the Kroffts with an idea to use the characters from HR Pufnstuff to promote the fast food giant. After many meetings with the Kroffts and their creatives, the firm announced that the deal had fallen through. In fact, the firm had won the contract and built the McDonaldland campaign, with characters clearly based on the Krofft's and the setting, McDonaldland, aping that of the "Living Island"' of Pufnstuff and Witchypoo. The court sided with the Krofft's, but awarded them a nominal sum of $20,000. Snookering them out of untold millions.

The world would never be the same.






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