Giving Vladimir the Ugg boot treatment

Squizzy

29 March 2022

Squizzy figures that global insurer and financial services outfit Zurich won’t be doing an “Uggies” on Vladimir Putin over the use of the letter “Z” which has been fundamental to Zurich’s branding over the past few years.

Zurich announced this week it had decided to remove the “Z” logo because it did not want to be misinterpreted as supporting Russia in the current conflict involving the invasion of Ukraine.

You see, the Russians chose to adorn their tanks and other vehicles with the letter “Z” ahead of the Ukraine invasion and it seems clear to Squizzy that they did not check to see whether any breach of copyright or ownership might be involved.

Zurich clearly sees this as a reputational issue rather than a copyright issue, whereas the US owners of the Uggboot brand clearly had other motivations when they took humble Australian manufacturers to court over use of the term “Uggies”.

For his part, Squizzy is grateful that when the Russian generals were not considering the use of symbols to adorn their tanks and vehicles prior to the invasion of Ukraine they did not choose Financial Newswire’s stylised “F”.

Had they done so, Squizzy might have been compelled to write them a stern letter