I wonder how much large corporations would pay you to name a new route after them. The advertising would last indefinitely, in every route book covering the area. I wonder how much they would pay to have a new crag named after them.
Or has it been done already? Nabisco Wall in Yosemite? And theres a route called Pepsi or something at Crookrise.
Or how about sponsoring crags? "Stanage, sponsored by La Sportiva"
In reply to Chris Fryer: Companies were falling over themselves to do this sort of thing in the 20's and 30's until they discovered that once a consumer product enters the language, it is no longer protected by copyright. Hence the reason that you can buy lots of brands called Coke or Cola. They were once owned by Coca Cola the drinks manufacturer but not any more!
> (In reply to Jon Dittman)
> Didn't Bill Birkett call a route "Asolo" after being sponspored by them?
Yes he did - wasn't popular at the time. And clearly didn't work, because as soon as I saw this thread I was thinking 'Didn't Bill Birkett call a route "Scarpa" after being sponspored by them?'
The other way round is to name a company after a famous route/area, eg Point Five (what happened to them), Patagonia, Troll etc. Just a matter of time before we get TPS E0 Ltd appears - look at the column inches they would get.
> Hence the reason that you can buy lots of brands called Coke or Cola.
Erm, 'Coke' is still a trademark, actually. 'Cola' isn't though - was it ever actually protected? Hoover apparently have kittens everytime a journalist uses it as a verb, and Private Eye had a snotty letter not too long ago about 'gratuitous' use of the word 'portakabin'. They retaliated by titling every letter with 'Portakabin'...
pretty sure there is a mobitel route on (possibly) Nuptse (can never remember) put up by Tomaz Humar who just happens to be sponsored by mobitel. mobitel are the slovenian mobile phone people and i think Tomaz gets suitable sponsorship money from them
Fri Night Vid Finding Focus - Life Behind The Lens of a Climbing Photographer
This week's Friday Night Video is a portrait of a prolific climbing photographer from Wedge Climbing. Sam Pratt is well known in both the outdoor and competition scene but if you haven't heard of him, you've likely seen...