I live in Britain where, though not on the same scale as the US of A, you do need to put a legal disclaimer on everything you do. For example, I believe it is best practice to put up a disclaimer on coffee mugs you give to visitors saying "If you are drinking coffee, spill it and burn yourself, you are stupid and careless and you cannot hold me responsible for it, on the contrary, I might sue you for staining my furniture".
Being in such a lovely place, I don't think I can be blamed for stating that what is said in this post is completely my own silly, dumb and sometimes crazy opinion. If you are offended or somehow manage to read between lines and interpret this differently, that's just too bad and you can't hold me responsible.
You must be wondering why I'm being so elaborate on making sure I don't get hauled into court, well that's because this post contains the dreaded "T" word - terrorists.
I remember when I was growing up, there used to be several brands of soft drinks, Thumbs-up, Gold Spot, 7-up, Pepsi, Coca-cola, Kaali Mark etc. At that point in time, I wasn't exactly what you might say, aware of corporate structures and branding, but if you care to dig up a bit, I'm sure 6 out of 10 brands will be owned by different companies. Then something really bad happened. The likes of Thumbs-up, 7-up etc got taken over by either Coke or Pepsico and Gold Spot, Kaali Mark and other small players simply disappeared.
The same thing happened in the late 90's and the early part of this century in telecom and automobile industries. Globally, any given mobile service provider with a coverage area greater than a few thousand square miles can be traced back to either Vodafone, Hutchison, Orange or T-mobile. Similarly, any car maker who sells more than a 25,000 cars a month can be traced back to either Toyota, Honda, GM, Fiat (save for the likes of Tata and Mahindra in India). I'm not going to go into the economics/stupidity behind all this. Its just an observation. I believe economists term this as "Consolidation of the Market" when growth is limited in multiple numbers, different companies join forces to continue to grow.
Sometime in 2001 an event called 9/11 happened in the US of A and a little known organisation called Al Qaeda, hitherto known only for small time activities shot into the spot light. Suddenly everyone wanted to get a piece of them - literally. This is perfectly normal and what has been happening since then is history.
Between then and now, something happened, which I'm sure many would have noticed. AQ started getting tons and tons of coverage and any terrorist event happening anywhere in the world immediately had an AQ angle. Bomb blast in Bangalore, India? AQ backing suspected. Kidnapping and hostage situation in Afghanistan? AQ suspected (OK that's extreme considering Afghanistan is home to AQ). Gun fire by a crazy psychopath in Germany? AQ hand suspected. Something happening in Australia? AQ angle being investigated. Pencil stolen from a child in the US? Police are also investigating if AQ is involved. Suddenly, any illegal activity in the world was being attributed to the AQ. I'm sure that in every case where police investigate an AQ angle, they are perfectly justified for doing so - I don't mean to undermine the heroic work they are doing.
It is almost as if by one cowardly, stupid act, AQ managed to trigger a massive wave of consolidation in the terrorism industry. Every crazed, psychotic and extremist organisation had a link to the AQ brand. I would assume the following conversation takes place at every terrorist board meeting:
Crazed Psychotic Leader: I don't like the way the government is treating the people, let's become terrorists.
Crazed Psychotic Followers: OK, but how do we let people around the world know we exist? Should we advertise in local newspapers?
CPL: Don't be stupid, local newspapers won't get awareness about us further than the state border. Besides, we will have to spend money to advertise. All we have to do is one dastardly act and the press automatically links us to AQ and we get instant worldwide coverage, free of charge!
CPF: Ooh, Saar you are too brilliant, no wonder you are CPL.
Unlike Steve Jobs and co. who are fiercely possessive about brand names and don't hesitate for one moment before they haul offenders to court for trademark infringement, I'm sure AQ enjoy the free publicity. It's almost like they hit the bulls-eye with 9/11 and now they can retire in the knowledge that any terrorist act anywhere in the world will automatically get an AQ stamp of recognition, keeping the organisation alive.
I wonder if they get royalty from the likes of aforementioned CPL?
