Comments on: Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street

By: Brian Winkeler

Brian Winkeler — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 13:41:09 +0000

I call it “salesturbation.”

By: Rod

Rod — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 12:56:56 +0000

And he pulls this crap with everybody.

By: Louis Fowler

Louis Fowler — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 03:17:52 +0000

That saucy little exchange got me a little Gerhard.

By: RP

RP — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 02:34:30 +0000

Man: Do you gschwandtner this copy of “Selling Power”?
Lady: No, I do not gschwandt it. I have read it already.
Man: Would you prefer if I gschwandtned you in the gschwandtner?
Lady: Would I? I would!

By: Janet Reid

Janet Reid — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 02:21:37 +0000

When the execs at Enron used an accrual accounting method for selling power, do you think they were criminals, or just trademark infringers?

I heard the governor of Illinois was interested in selling power and influence. Can we add trademark infringing to his list of crimes?

And someone alert those fellas down at ConEd to quit selling power or the flinty eyed Gerhard Gschwandtner will come and talk tough on their blog too.

By: Chris@bookarama

Chris@bookarama — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 01:27:47 +0000

Sales Mastery (TM). I call dibs on that one! I think it might make a great title for an urban romance. lol

By: Louis Fowler

Louis Fowler — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 01:15:24 +0000

From this moment on, in every Bookgasm review I write, I swear to God that I will find a way to work in the generic phrase “selling power”.

By: Rod

Rod — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 00:32:49 +0000

That’s ridiculous. The phrase isn’t capitalized and quite obviously does not refer to your magazine; therefore, there’s no confusion in the marketplace or infringement upon your trademark. If that were the case, no one would be able to write that a “rolling stone gathers no moss” or that a solution to a problem “is real simple.” The phrase certainly predates your magazine.

Furthermore, I think your comment is just a ploy to get links to your website. I’ve disabled those.

By: Gerhard Gschwandtner

Gerhard Gschwandtner — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 00:18:11 +0000

Dear Mr. Lott:

I just ran across your article entitled Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street, http://www.bookgasm.com/reviews/entertainment/street-gang/, and I would like to raise an issue that is of concern to Selling Power magazine, which is the use of our trademark.

The word “Selling Power” is sometimes erroneously used as a synonym for sales effectiveness. For example you wrote: “SESAME STREET wasn’t the first educational show for kids, of course, but it was the first to co-opt the mighty selling power of Madison Avenue…” We do not condone such uses of our trademark.

As a practical matter, when you describe sales effectiveness, there are a wide range of terms available such as: sales excellence, sales savvy, sales mastery, sales acumen, sales efficiency, and many more.

The reason for this letter is to educate writers like yourself that we want to protect our trademark, since we don’t want to risk Selling Power being declared by the courts a generic word. Therefore we ask you not to use Selling Power as a phrase since it is our legal trademark.

We would like to receive a written acknowledgment of this letter stating that you will in the future identify Selling Power as a trademark if you should write about our magazine, and not use Selling Power as a phrase. If we do not hear from you, we will need to take further action.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

All the best,

Gerhard Gschwandtner
Founder and Publisher
Selling Power
1140 International Parkway
Fredericksburg VA 22406
Office: 540-752-7000 Cell: 540-273-2555

By: Eric L

Eric L — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 04:36:47 +0000

Did you know that before he was on SESAME STREET Bob McGrath was Japan’s most popular Irish tenor?

By: Dan Taylor

Dan Taylor — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:03:50 +0000

My wife is reading this now and I’m sure I’ll pick it up after she’s done. I don’t really remember watching SESAME STREET as a kid though I was certainly familiar with it. The children’s programming I really remember is SPACE GIANTS, JOHNNY SOCKO, SPEED RACER, BATMAN and the Ralph Bakshi SPIDER-MAN. Jesus, what kind of life lessons was I taking away from that lineup?! Our 19-month-old loves her some SESAME and chants of “Elmo! Abby!” are like a broken record in the morning. I’ve seen the ELMO’S CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN DVD so much that I had to order an Abby-centric DVD just to regain my sanity. I must admit that as far as most of the children’s programming goes SESAME STREET makes it at least somewhat engaging for adults. Mike Rowe from DIRTY JOBS was on the other day and actually made a joke about “I always wanted to go in the back door…” but they cut the “back door” part!

By: Bruce

Bruce — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 13:12:20 +0000

Mr. Hooper is dead. Long live Mr. Hooper