Vacationing Like the Kennedy's :: VW and Lampoon

One Word :: MaryJo Kopechne
by Pat Darnell and a bunch of Others

Sleepless, tireless, industrious to dredge up undivulged story lines ... MooPig Wisdom Editors take pride as they stay ever vigil to antagonistic habits of the wealthy, privileged or largesse.

"That is chiefly to protect our Middle's middle Americans," explained Merv Dooley, "hardest working sons of bitches in the world, our middle, our Bread Basket ... our divine Providence that God conceived as power sustaining and guiding human destiny to supply, serve and protect our free coastlines and borders."



"That is, be constant on the lookout for unanticipated turns of events, no matter the time, space, or architecture of the events," said Merv. [Note: Merv, Editor-in-Chief of Time, Space, and Architecture Department thinks, and acts, a lot like William Shatner playing the part of Captain Kirk]

Follows is a "good one" that many readers may never have had privilege to read back during the first go around ... from 1969 - 73 ... in aftermath of tom foolery, and horseplay that follows the Kennedy's everywhere they go -- especially while vacationing.

Edgartown, MA (1969) this was posted by Tom Sutpen
7 comments so far for the series: Twilight of the Dreamboats

Comment:
Will said...
Volkswagen sued, claiming unauthorized use of its trademark.

From Time Magazine, 11/12/73:

One Word :: Mary Jo Kopeckne
by Pat Darnell and lots of others
The National Lampoon's jejune penetrations of the frontiers of bad taste have earned it a devoted following (800,000) and hilarious profits. But a mock advertisement in Lampoon's 1973 Encyclopedia of Humor brought the magazine's madcap staffers some serious trouble. "If Ted Kennedy drove a Volkswagen, he'd be President today," said the realistic-looking ad copy under a photo of a Beetle floating hubcap-deep in water. The text explained that Volkswagen's watertight construction—a selling point in genuine VW ads—would have prevented the 1969 drowning of Mary Jo Kopechne. Volkswagen of America began receiving outraged letters from readers who thought that VW itself was responsible for the ghoulish idea ("I will be damned if I will buy another Volkswagen after seeing an ad like the attached," wrote one customer).

VW responded with a $30 million damage suit against Lampoon, charging violations of trademark and copyright laws and defamation. Last week Lampoon agreed to withdraw all unsold copies of the magazine by Nov. 15 (450,000 were printed), to destroy the plate of the ad, and to run Volkswagen's statement on the incident in the magazine's January issue. It seemed only fitting that the Lampoon, which has thrived on necrological humor, would at last find itself forced to kill one of its own items.

[July 18, 2009 :: 40 Years Since Chappaquiddick; Ted Kennedy 'Would Have Brought Comfort' to Mary Jo Kopechne 'In Her Old Age' ... funny Quote from this Great Article HERE
" ... As my colleague Brent Baker noted in an op-ed back in 1999, the media have come to refer to Chappaquiddick as a “Kennedy tragedy,” not a “Kopechne tragedy.”
... Perhaps the most egregious example of the liberal media planting a pro-Kennedy spin on Chappaquiddick came in a January 5, 2003 Boston Globe Magazine profile of Kennedy:
... “If she had lived, Mary Jo Kopechne would be 62 years old. Through his tireless work as a legislator, Edward Kennedy would have brought comfort to her in her old age,” wrote the Globe’s Charles Pierce. The quote was recognized as the worst of the year at the MRC’s DisHonors Awards in 2004."] (Noyes, Rich. July 18, 2009 SOURCE)