Editorial: Pie stance leads to indigestion

OPINION: For some time there has been a nascent movement – existing mostly on the internet – which has aimed to bring back national institution Georgie Pie.

Georgie Pie was a chain of fast food outlets which dished up plastic looking pies and chips at affordable prices. It wasn't gourmet food, and no doubt played a small part in the current obesity epidemic, but people loved Georgie Pie and it was homegrown.

The business was bought by international fast food juggernaut McDonald's in the mid 1990s and shut down in short order.

Presumably McDonald's chose to turn off the pie warmers at Georgie because it was a rival that fragmented the fast food market.

A number of the old Georgie Pies were converted to McDonald's which was no surprise. McDonald's success is built on investing billions in a single brand that promises food that tastes the same whether you eat it in Timaru, Tokoroa or Timbuktoo.

Having the same restaurants, with the same branding and manufacturing systems worldwide gives McDonald's enormous economies of scale. Owning tiny local brands doesn't fit with that strategy.

That said, Georgie Pie's life from beyond the grave appears to be giving McDonald's a case of indigestion. The golden arches is clearly sensitive about the brand it killed off.

To this end its lawyers have sent entrepreneur Phil Callaghan, who has been selling "Bring Back Georgie Pie" T-shirts and badges, a stern letter warning him that he is breaching McDonald's rights by using the Georgie Pie logo.

Publicity about McDonald's approach has naturally led to a run on sales of his T-shirts and badges, and as of yesterday he was in danger of running out of stock. At a stroke the legal stance has turned them into this Christmas's must-have items.

McDonald's approach is not, to paraphrase Finance Minister Bill English, a good look.

First of all, it seems odd to be fighting to protect a trademark for a business that has not been trading for 13 years. McDonald's has hinted at a possible return of Georgie Pie but it is hard to imagine that the business case for it will stack up.

While diehard Georgie fans will yearn for its return the national diet appears to have moved on since the days when pies and chips reigned supreme.

All the approach has done is give extra oxygen to the bring back Georgie Pie campaign. Lawyers will argue that the principle of defending intellectual property rights is an important one, which is absolutely correct. But when the brand is all but extinct and unlikely to make a comeback it is not hard to see why the McDonald's stance backfired. In other words: Small guy 1: Multinational corporation 0.

- © Fairfax NZ News