One of our Sproutians’ kids was a pirate for Halloween this year. But he wasn’t just any pirate; he was “Cap’n Jack Sparrow!” He insisted on getting pirate boots and a sword to complete the costume his mom had bought for him. “Thanks, Mom. Now, all we need is some boots and a sword!”
 

This theatrical three year-old loves watching “Pirates of the Caribbean” and got into character trick or treating door to door. For his trick, he attacked any bowls of candy that had creepy motion sensor mechanical hands in them with his sword. At one house, he went back and forth endlessly attacking a talking scare crow and a creepy mechanical hand. The owner of the house got a kick out of it and his dad couldn’t have been prouder—“That’s my pirate!”

You know something’s a brand when the generic version just won’t do.

As another case in point, I have a friend named Brick Bergeson who dressed up (or down as the case may be) as Michael Phelps for his work’s Halloween costume party. Brick happens to have been a four-minute miler in college not too long ago, so he still has the physique to look believable in nothing but, well, a Speedo.


 

With remnants of Summer Olympics imagery still cycling across our collective screen saver, everyone immediately recognized Brick’s costume not just as someone who swims, but as Michael Phelps, proud owner of eight—albeit homemade in this case—gold medals draped around his neck. This is a good thing, because you don’t want to have to do a lot of explaining when you’re walking around the office in a Speedo.

Mimicking Phelps’ signature pre-race arm swings and assuming diving position on a lowly office chair was all it took for Brick to take home the top prize in his company’s Halloween costume contest. Let’s hope the free movie tickets were worth the annotation human resources made in his personal file.



Apparently, there have already been some fringe benefits for Brick. He says that a lot more people around the office recognize him and say ‘hello’ to him. The only question now is what Brick will do with his new-found brand recognition.

I remember dressing up as Nu Skin’s president and CEO, Truman Hunt, one Halloween when I worked there. It was an easy costume: white Sunday dress shirt, dark suit and tie—with some gray highlights and that was all it took to look the part. I was part of a group talent show later that day and we won first prize for parodying a company-wide speech Truman had made recently, in which he referenced his love of Beetles music. 





Ironically, he happened to have been wearing a (generic) pirate costume that day and I can remember him brandishing his pretend, but symbolic pistol at me from the front row of the audience as if to say, “Watch it, kid.” I was branded by some from that point on as “Truman,” which was fine as long as he wasn’t there when they made the reference. Like Tina Fey and Sarah Palin, you have to be careful who you imitate because the comparison might just stick to your own brand.