As has been the tradition for the past couple of years, our Chief Legal Officer Ed Kabak, a deft wordsmith in his own right, opened Day 2 of the PMA Marketing Law Conference with a poem that summed up the past year in marketing law.  Here it is for your reading pleasure:

The Year In Review
(c) 2008 by E. M. Kabak

It was the year of Obama
The stock market crash
The year that many lost a lot of their cash
The year of appeals in text message suits
If  the court waits much longer
The technology will be moot
“Twas the year the industry was sent a big chill
An overdrafted Cal sweepstakes bill
Which threatened  what some thought was cardinal sin
For the names of sweeps customers , you’d have to optin
But with the assistance of the PMA
That doleful provision at last went away
A PMA product placement, perchance do I see?
In the middle of this poem sayeth FCC
That’s right- some comments on proposed rule-making
Would give embedded advertising a rather stiff shaking
But the 1st amendment- wardrobe malfunction
Trumped the indecency connection and junction
The FCC change lacked “reasoned analysis”
A breast may have moved
but its thought was in paralysis
and yet we wait, baited breath, hearts beating
for nine tired robes to rule on expletives fleeting
Social network operators found a new friend
AG Cuomo who said some things must end
More safeguards needed against predators sexual
Pictures- content- pornography textual
The Government protects kids when they’re online
How we wish our 401ks were as fine
There were changes in gift cards and dormancy charges
Expiry dates, cash balances and largess

And still we wait for the FTC to deal with tracking transparently
will rules be mandated that cause consternation
or left to the machinery of self- regulation
we’re waiting too for news that is postable
about claims made on packaging compostable
there’s a whole new vocabulary now heard and seen
substantiating the claim to be green
“No proof, too vague, irrelevant, fibbing”
Your  carbon offsets are at best ad-libbing
When they issue new rules all the bloggers are swarming
Let’s hope we see rules before global warming
A voice from the grave
Is for lawyers felicity
The dead now speak upWith the right of publicity
Could the practice of consumer product safety be finer
With all the recalls coming from China?
Things could be worse-the Chinese have yet
To recall their holdings of Treasury Debt
Listen closely to the sessions on SAG and AFTRA
Lest your use of performers turn to disaster
There are additional fees over which some may fret
For use in new media and on the net
Then there were challenges – Bills do not mail
Surfaced before limping off beaten and pale
Four new provisions to digest from CAN SPAM
Let’s hope we don’t have to eat the stuff from a can
A new definition of multiple sender
A bright line test and not a mind–bender
Under TSR all calls prerecorded
Sans written consent must now be aborted
Our industry is as regulated as you can get
We do not run on collateralized debt
More Regs are appropriate for credit default swaps
But we need no more sweepstakes cops
When it comes to games and contests of skill
Gift cards rebates coupons if you will
and premiums have a much lower bill
while giving consumers great savings and thrills
So good luck, Mr. President
We hope you select
In the first 100 days
From the top of your deck
A great fiscal stimulus
More government spending
Alternative energy
And health care blending
All these initiatives
Set into motion
To your huge data base
With the tools of promotion