Drink Name Controversy
9/23/2003
By Kevin Wuzzardo/WCJB TV 20 News
Is it free speech or disturbing the peace? That's the question promoters of a new energy drink are asking after being arrested for simply saying the product's name this weekend.
"(Seth Garrett) says in a megaphone, 'Come get Sum Poosie, the nation's hottest new energy drink,'" Sum Poosie's Gainesville sales rep Jarret Rosenberg says. "And the next minute you know, they guy comes up and arrests him."
But Gainesville Police say Garrett wasn't saying the name of the drink. Instead, he used only the second part. And that, police say, is what got him arrested for disorderly conduct.
"When you're dropping out some letters on the drink, and you're doing things that by state statute could be against public morals, we gave a notice to appear," says Sgt. Keith Kameg.
Rosenberg says he and several other people were promoting the drink across from the UF campus Saturday.
"Nobody complained," he says. "Everybody was laughing."
But not everyone thought it was funny. A mother with her 10-year-old daughter asked police to do something about the graphic language.
"You have to look at what the families were looking at, and actually how it was said," says Kameg. "And you weren't talking about the brand name at this point, because the brand name and what was said were two very, very different things."
But beverage promoters still think police overreacted.
"Who gets arrested for selling an energy drink?" says Rosenberg.
Rosenberg says Garrett has to go to court in a couple of weeks on the charge. Kameg says this minor charge very well could come down to a major issue of First Amendment free speech.
http://www.wcjb.com/news.asp?id=8205
9/23/2003
By Kevin Wuzzardo/WCJB TV 20 News
Is it free speech or disturbing the peace? That's the question promoters of a new energy drink are asking after being arrested for simply saying the product's name this weekend.
"(Seth Garrett) says in a megaphone, 'Come get Sum Poosie, the nation's hottest new energy drink,'" Sum Poosie's Gainesville sales rep Jarret Rosenberg says. "And the next minute you know, they guy comes up and arrests him."
But Gainesville Police say Garrett wasn't saying the name of the drink. Instead, he used only the second part. And that, police say, is what got him arrested for disorderly conduct.
"When you're dropping out some letters on the drink, and you're doing things that by state statute could be against public morals, we gave a notice to appear," says Sgt. Keith Kameg.
Rosenberg says he and several other people were promoting the drink across from the UF campus Saturday.
"Nobody complained," he says. "Everybody was laughing."
But not everyone thought it was funny. A mother with her 10-year-old daughter asked police to do something about the graphic language.
"You have to look at what the families were looking at, and actually how it was said," says Kameg. "And you weren't talking about the brand name at this point, because the brand name and what was said were two very, very different things."
But beverage promoters still think police overreacted.
"Who gets arrested for selling an energy drink?" says Rosenberg.
Rosenberg says Garrett has to go to court in a couple of weeks on the charge. Kameg says this minor charge very well could come down to a major issue of First Amendment free speech.
http://www.wcjb.com/news.asp?id=8205
Many states/cities/counties have obscenity laws (which is why it's always stressed in this industry that what might not be obscene in Los Angeles, could be in Podunk, TN.) and if those laws are broken, you get penalized for it. Period. 
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