A small US brewer has had to cancel a campaign featuring the images of American explorers Lewis and Clark. Kansas City's Boulevard Brewing Co. was planning to use a well-known logo featuring the silhouettes of the early-19th century frontiersmen. Rather than pointing a finger west, one of the explorers was holding a bottle of Boulevard Pale Ale. But the US federal parks service protested, pointing out that the logo is a federal government insignia. Any commercial representation of it would suggest federal endorsement of a product, it claimed. Boulevard Brewing will now have to destroy US$15,000 worth of metal signs bearing the image, which were to be shipped to restaurants, pubs and liquor stores in several states.

18 February, 2004