Trains in a New TV Commercial

If it's Flex-Seal, a commercial was used last year that had 2 Lionel trains in the background carrying product.

Rusty

Here's one a lot of people have never seen. It doesn't make the hobby look good IMO.

https://youtu.be/uSzJBQZP6nU

Hit below belt from DirectTv. Portrays model railroad hobby for weirdo's.

There is another out there too. Near the end it shows a boy working a hand held remote control running the train. Cannot recall what the product or store was.

Tin

It's HO, but there is one in the new flex seal commercial.

@Alan D posted:

Hit below belt from DirectTv. Portrays model railroad hobby for weirdo's.

 go to

I believe that a case can be made for that. When you go to a train show and your hear conversation between potential buyer and seller saying something like "I can't offer you that much as its doesn't have the original man on it" ;  what are people supposed to think? 

@CSXJOE posted:

It's HO, but there is one in the new flex seal commercial.

Actually, it’s for Flex Paste, a newer product in the Flex Seal product line. The TV ad mentions how it can be used in hobbies and shows trains running around scenery presumably made using the product. 

Funny thing is that Woodland Scenics also has a hobby product called Flex Paste. But Flex Seal has trademarked the term, meaning there could potentially be a legal challenge ahead.

@Jim R. posted:

Actually, it’s for Flex Paste, a newer product in the Flex Seal product line. The TV ad mentions how it can be used in hobbies and shows trains running around scenery presumably made using the product. 

Funny thing is that Woodland Scenics also has a hobby product called Flex Paste. But Flex Seal has trademarked the term, meaning there could potentially be a legal challenge ahead.

The Woodland Scenics product has been out for years and is also trademarked.  The Flex Seal product is the newcomer.

Rusty

@Rusty Traque posted:

The Woodland Scenics product has been out for years and is also trademarked.  The Flex Seal product is the newcomer.

Rusty

 

Absolutely. Woodland Scenics could make that argument. Flex Seal isn’t necessarily holding the stronger claim. 

Woodland Scenics would have a strong case, they trademarked the name and were earlier with it. On the other hand, that raises a couple of questions:

1)Would woodland scenics lose money because of flex seal using 'flex paste'? They might show flex paste on a train layout, but would hobbyists seriously stop using the woodland scenics product in favor of flex paste? I don't know what it is like and if flex paste (the new stuff) could do the same thing......likely woodland scenics would only act if they felt it would cause them harm.   I remember a case where a famous restaurant in NYC sued some diner in like Montana some such place for using the same name. It got thrown out of court, the court ruled that there was no way in heck that anyone could assume a diner in a rural area was the big name restaurant in NY or associated with it, that there was no harm to the NYC restaurant and that the name didn't significantly benefit the diner by name association. Woodland scenics might have a case if they can show that because the commercial had a train layout on it, it would hurt their brand. Had the commercial not suggested that a court might rule that they are two different markets with two different bases and no commonality, but who knows? (not a lawyer, just from what I recall of business law, some of the esquires on here prob can give a more definitive answer). 

2)Possibly the flex seal people did a TM search, saw the Woodland Scenics product name, and came to an agreement with them financially

@Dennis LaGrua posted:

I believe that a case can be made for that. When you go to a train show and your hear conversation between potential buyer and seller saying something like "I can't offer you that much as its doesn't have the original man on it" ;  what are people supposed to think? 

Not to mention people coming to blows over an engine being  a scale 2" too short, the paint is not truly Pennsylvania snot green, etc *lol*. For every "king of cool" into trains like Sinatra or a Rod Stewart or Elliot (bigboy or scher *lol*), lot more, well.........

The Woodland Scenics product is considerably thinner than Flex Seals.

I don't think people are going to be sealing leaks or building chicken wire boats with the Woodland Scenics product.

Rusty

Ah, but why did Flex Seal include the model railroad scenery reference in their 2020 TV ad? That’s the question. 

@Jim R. posted:

Ah, but why did Flex Seal include the model railroad scenery reference in their 2020 TV ad? That’s the question. 

That is key, by doing that they directly are advertising you could use it for scenery. 

@bigkid posted:

That is key, by doing that they directly are advertising you could use it for scenery. 

Which puts Flex Seal in competition with Woodland Scenics, which also has a trademarked product called Flex Paste. Thus the trademark challenge question above.

@bigkid posted:

Not to mention people coming to blows over an engine being  a scale 2" too short, the paint is not truly Pennsylvania snot green, etc *lol*. For every "king of cool" into trains like Sinatra or a Rod Stewart or Elliot (bigboy or scher *lol*), lot more, well.........

Choose any hobby people engage in and there will be individuals outside the hobby with perceived stereotypes of the typical hobbyist.  At the end of the day, what does it really matter?  

Curt

@juniata guy posted:

Choose any hobby people engage in and there will be individuals outside the hobby with perceived stereotypes of the typical hobbyist.  At the end of the day, what does it really matter?  

Curt

That is a good point and a valuable one, and it isn't just hobbies. How many of us have seen or experienced where spouses, for example, complain about the hobby and what people will think?  I certainly don't care, given that having trains doesn't change my value as a person, doesn't hurt anyone, doesn't cost anyone outside my pocketbook anything, so why should I care?  One of the things I never understood is why would people even care what other people are doing enough to judge it, if it gives someone else pleasure and isn't affecting you, hurting someone, who cares? I always liked what Tom Paine wrote on the subject, he said that intolerance and tolerance are basically just as bad, that both of them are predicated on the right to judge other people, the only difference is what you do with that judgement. 

Anyone that is so "one dimensionally" obsessed in any hobby would be a "weirdo" by society no matter how common place or obscure.  However, most toy train enthusiasts I know are very down to earth well rounded people with many hobbies, skills and interests, and not the guy that lives in his basement obsession over his layout.  Of course there are always a few of these people, too!

The Eli commercial could have picked any hobby or pursuit, stamp, coin, baseball collecting, dungeons and dragons, video games, etc and it would have been just as funny.

 Remember that funny bud light "real men of genius" commercials that had a similar obsessed train guy theme?