Marines to Hunter: Stop using emblem
Corps says use of logo in mailers could imply its endorsement.
Controversial mail pieces sent by the campaign of Rep. Duncan Hunter recently were criticized as Islamophobic. Now the materials have drawn attention from the Marine Corps. for a different reason.
The U.S. Marine Corps trademark licensing office wrote Hunter a letter Tuesday, asking him to immediately stop using the official USMC Eagle, Globe and Anchor emblem and the phrase “No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy” — which are trademarked — on all campaign materials.
“The phrase ‘No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy’ is a registered Marine Corps trademark and your use of the phrase and the emblem is likely to convey the impression that the Marine Corps favors your candidacy over another, or ‘endorses’ your views on a particular issue, and is a use of which we cannot grant permission,” the letter states. “We thereby request your campaign immediately remove the emblem and the phrase from its mailers, and, without limitation, from all other campaign materials.”
The letter says Hunter is welcome to state he is a Marine Corps veteran and to use an alternative Marine veteran logo, which Marines use to indicate pride in their service.
Hunter spokesman Michael Harrison said in an email that Hunter’s campaign is complying with the Marine Corps request.
“It is personally disappointing to Congressman Hunter that he is now being told that he cannot use this motto or image that is as much a part of him as it is for the thousands of Marines like Congressman Hunter who went to war under this banner and have used this logo for tattoos, coins, and multiple other items of personal sentiment,” Harrison wrote in an email.
Harrison added that historically Hunter’s campaign materials have included a required military disclaimer that states, “the use of his military rank, job titles and photographs in uniform does not imply endorsement from the Department of Defense or the Marines.”
A Marine Corps spokesman was not able to say how the recent campaign materials came to Corps’ attention or how often the Marines send cease-and-desist letters to members of Congress.
“The Eagle, Globe, and Anchor is a trademark of the Marine Corps protected by federal law .... The seal and emblem should not be used in conjunction with any political activities,” said Marine Capt. Joseph Butterfield.
Separately, Hunter faces criminal charges of misusing $250,000 in campaign funds.
His campaign materials recently drew another kind of media attention. The mailers, soliciting donations, showed a photo of a terrorist who attacked the 1972 Munich Olympic Games on one side and photos of Hunter’s Democratic 2018 election opponent Ammar Campa-Najjar and two Muslim congresswomen on the other, Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar and Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib. Above the photos of the three is a message from Hunter: “These three radical Democrats want you to forget their anti-semitism or family terrorist ties! But as a Marine I’ll never forget the 1983 Beirut bombings and the 1972 Olympic murders.”