Dear Editor:
A local Marketing Expert and Scholar has submitted a letter to Parsippany Focus that we wanted to publish. The writer has wished to remain anonymous but has been a Marketing Professional and Scholar for over 25 years.
People may not be aware but it is against the US Federal Law to use the American flag in advertising. Many people in town have been seeing signs that originated in Urban Chicago that state “Hate Has No Home Here” and the sign has a clear image of the US Flag (Colors, Stars and Stripes) as the marketing slogan.
The writer of this article sites an example from Cornell below:
“4 U.S. Code § 3 – Use of flag for advertising purposes; mutilation of flag
Any person who, in any manner, for exhibition or display, shall place or cause to be placed any word, figure, mark, picture, design, drawing, or any advertisement of any nature upon any flag, standard, colors, or ensign of the United States of America; or shall expose or cause to be exposed to public view any such flag, standard, colors, or ensign upon which shall have been printed, painted, or otherwise placed, or to which shall be attached, appended, affixed, or annexed any word, figure, mark, picture, design, or drawing, or any advertisement of any nature; or who, within the District of Columbia, shall manufacture, sell, expose for sale, or to public view, or give away or have in possession for sale, or to be given away or for use for any purpose, any article or substance being an article of merchandise, or a receptacle for merchandise or article or thing for carrying or transporting merchandise, upon which shall have been printed, painted, attached, or otherwise placed a representation of any such flag, standard, colors, or ensign, to advertise, call attention to, decorate, mark, or distinguish the article or substance on which so placed shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be punished by a fine not exceeding $100 or by imprisonment for not more than thirty days, or both, in the discretion of the court. The words “flag, standard, colors, or ensign”, as used herein, shall include any flag, standard, colors, ensign, or any picture or representation of either, or of any part or parts of either, made of any substance or represented on any substance, of any size evidently purporting to be either of said flag, standard, colors, or ensign of the United States of America or a picture or a representation of either, upon which shall be shown the colors, the stars and the stripes, in any number of either thereof, or of any part or parts of either, by which the average person seeing the same without deliberation may believe the same to represent the flag, colors, standard, or ensign of the United States of America.
(July 30, 1947, ch. 389, 61 Stat. 642; Pub. L. 90–381, § 3, July 5, 1968, 82 Stat. 291.)”
The writer feels that the signs should be outlawed and he perceives the posting of these signs to be illegal and a blatant disrespect for the law. He also asserts that any good thinking American should be aware of this and the ethics associated with using images of the US flag.
Written by a Concerned Parsippany Resident
Editors Note: Parsippany Focus has confirmed the identity of the writer who wishes to remain anonymous.
