JEFFERSON CITY — Two ads by the campaign to legalize recreational marijuana in Missouri vanished from YouTube after the Missouri State Highway Patrol accused the group of breaking state law by the “unauthorized” use of its emblem.
The 30-second ad targeted by the patrol was visible on the Legal Missouri 2022 campaign YouTube page on Thursday. But by Friday afternoon, it had disappeared.
A similar 15-second ad was still visible Friday afternoon, but a campaign spokesman said the campaign would be “taking down” the 15-second one if it was still uploaded. It eventually disappeared as well.
“We will be uploading new versions of both shortly,” said John Payne, campaign manager for Legal Missouri 2022.
The patrol issued a public statement earlier this week saying it didn’t approve the use of its “emblem, name, or images” and that “nor was permission sought.”
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An agency spokesman said Thursday the patrol sent a “cease-and-desist order” to the Legal Missouri campaign, but a copy of the letter wasn’t immediately provided. The Post-Dispatch received the letter on Friday.
Kayla Kemp, legal counsel for the patrol, said in the Wednesday letter the emblem “is a registered service mark” and that its registration “prohibits anyone other than the owner of the service mark from using the mark without the Patrol’s consent.
“As the use of any images featuring the Patrol’s emblem is unauthorized and a violation of state law, Legal Missouri 2022 needs to immediately cease and desist its use of the Patrol’s name and emblem in its advertising,” the letter said.
It goes on to mention parts of the two ads the agency took issue with and says “the Patrol respectfully requests that all references, including imagery, to the Patrol be immediately removed from any past or future advertisements.”
Chuck Hatfield, a Jefferson City attorney, said the letter by the patrol amounted to “chest-thumping.”
He said the patrol cited service mark law, which is “about using things for commercial gain.”
But, he said, “the First Amendment allows people to engage in fair use of intellectual property, particularly when it comes to political campaigns.”
One piece of footage, for example, shows someone in a police uniform riding what appears to be a “state trooper” motorcycle down a winding road. A narrator says “a vote for Amendment 3 is a vote to let the police focus on serious crime.”
John Payne, the campaign manager, called the images used “stock footage” on Thursday.
Asked about the cease-and-desist letter on Thursday, he said in a text message that he hadn’t received it but said “this footage is available to be licensed, and we licensed it. We have every right to do that.”
“Amendment 3 will allow our Missouri law enforcement to focus on fighting serious and violent crime by becoming the 20th state to legalize marijuana,” Payne said in a text message Friday.
“Obviously, the ad we released this week was highly effective in driving that message home,” he said, “but out of respect to the Patrol we have swapped out the 3 stock footages they identified in their letter.”
Missourians will vote Nov. 8 on the full legalization of marijuana. Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft’s office on Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2022, announced that the campaign received enough signatures to go in front of Missouri voters.
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