Graduation announcement/banner concern

[Lea]

Wasn't sure where to direct this. I had noticed a graduation banner order that kept getting canceled. Didn't think too much of it but then the customer reached out to me to say that Zazzle kept canceling it because she typed in that her child was a Penn State graduate (I directed her to Zazzle help). I totally understand that we aren't allowed to sell items with a real university name and also why we aren't, but Zazzle promotes college graduate items with "YOUR SCHOOL HERE." I guess I'm just wondering if a customer can't actually put their own college or university, should we make adjustments so the graduation designs we have don't imply they can?

[Connie]

I sure hope it is just an overactive bot doing this! That would be absurd for a CUSTOMER not being able to put in the ACTUAL COLLEGE their kid is graduating from! What would even be the point of having those products if they can't be customized with the actual school name?

[Lea]

I had the same thought about it just being an automated thing and maybe contacting CS could get it pushed through. But who knows just how much Penn State protects their name. Since Zazzle has an officially licensed store (albeit without banners or announcements or anything remotely close), it may be something they can't or won't risk.

[Scott]

Apologies for the late response here, but we aren't able to produce announcements for Penn St at this time. We can produce announcements for the vast majority of schools, but Penn St seems to be an exception here.

[Lea]

Thanks, Scott! Just so I'm clear - in case I'm asked again - there are some colleges and universities that don't get flagged and will print no problem but there are schools (like Penn State) who don't allow their name to be used at all on any banners? I'm not referring to officially licensed, of course - just what parents would type on the design from any of our own stores. Thank you!

[Scott · Accepted solution]

Yep, that's my understanding of the situation.

[Lea]

Hi! I just saw this promoted on a Zazzle Facebook post. It uses actual college and university names in it. So will that work and those orders won't get flagged and canceled?
https://www.zazzle.com/ideas/occasions/graduation-announcement-wording-tips-etiquette?fbclid=IwAR0MQ...

[CrazyMermaid]

It would not surprise me if the college owns the copyright to their name and  sells banners and expects grads to order from them. Private universities are private companies trying to make ends meet and make money. How are they different from Disney?

[Lea]

I get that. And I'd be OK with that. BUT if Zazzle cannot print a school name on a grad card or banner or whatever unless it's officially licensed, then they need to stop marketing stuff like that. The customer who reached out to me tried multiple times to get her banner printed and it kept getting canceled. So don't say "YOUR SCHOOL NAME HERE" or create blog posts that tell customers to say Ohio State University graduate because that's just going to leave customers confused and frustrated.