… this doesn’t make sense to me.
Let’s start with why Barney thinks there’s any justification for suing, and then move out to everything else going on here.
(And as a side note, it might be dangerous this week for Barney to suggest he doesn’t understand things because he’s getting older)
Comics I Don't Understand 
He wants to sue because they’re making fun of his company. It has nothing to do with whether there’s sufficient justification, though there might be, since they’re the same actors who made commercials for his company. (For that last, have a good memory of the strip or read the blond’s balloon in the last panel.)
The farmers are saying that pharmaceutical companies just want to fleece the public (as though they’re different from most other companies). The flunkies suggest that it’s not hurting the company. In fact, putting their ads on the videos would be good advertising.
Barney can’t understand how letting people make fun of his company can be good business. He probably hasn’t read about some of the backlash from companies who’ve sent spurious C&Ds to parodists.
Arthur got it @1. Since we’ve seen them doing other spots as “Pills” & “Bury”, they would probably have clauses in their contracts that would preclude this kind of parody.
When Clara Peller followed up her “Where’s the beef” campaign with a Prego ad stating that she had “found” the beef, her situation with Wendy’s got a little nasty, which didn’t help either one of them.
There’s a history of corporations using frivolous lawsuits about intellectual property to silence critics who can’t afford the massive legal expenses to defend themselves.
Yes, but in this case I’m not convinced it’d be frivolous.
Was it Gallo that used to run commercials with 2 guys pretending to be farmers? They were everywhere for a few years, but I can’t find them.
The cranberry company . . . I forget their name, even tho one of their processing plants is located within a few miles of where I lived in WI . . . it’ll come to me soon as I hit ‘SEND’.
These guys:
Thinking of Bartles and Jaymes?
I thought Downpuppy was talking of Bartles and Jaymes (which were wine coolers made by a large company which I think was Gallo). And I also assumed Pills/Peabody and Bury/Brainard was a satire of Bartles and Jaymes. But then Bartles and Jaymes never seemed to be farmers so much as small town men sitting on their porches.
These guys (and it was Gallo)
So now we have a ‘B&J’ contingent and a ‘OceanSpray’ contingent. Should we take a vote?
Ah, thanks. 1985. Yeah, I just geezer tagged myself.
Reminds me of the commercials with “Aldo Cella” for Cella wines.
I thought of the B& J commercials also.