Laredo's version of "C. S. I."

As fellow blogger Bordertown Blues has long pointed out, copywright infringement seems to abound in the "no man's land" that is Laredo's local businesses.  A reader of Laredo's Most Imposing Blog, La Sanbe recently posted "Laredo is too far south for anyone important to notice all the copywright infringements down here".  That brings us to the Laredo CSI label : Laredo- Copywrights Stolen Immediately.

In this town, where even those who struggle to make ends meet, always try to buy the best for their kids' parties, copywright infringement means big bucks.  How many kids have whacked a pinata figure of "Woody" or "Sponge-Bob" (also known as Bob Esponja), or even the sneaky Swiper of Dora, the Explorer fame?  How many "puestecitos" display a Warner Brothers or Disney character in order to lure kids in to buy their array of snacks and frozen confections?  Just yesterday, I saw a man pushing a paletas cart sporting a reasonable fascimilie of the Tazmanian Devil, aka "El Taz".

One booming Laredo business that has clearly parlayed Laredo's copywright free-for-all reality into it's own well-recognized logo is "Los Pinguinos" Raspas and Snack house. In just a couple of years, the fledgling chain has gone from one small "puesto" to 4 locations scattered throughout a substantial portion of town.  Not surprisingly, Los Pinguinos' cartoon icon bears an uncanny resemblance to the character "Chilly Willy" who had his theater debut way back in 1953. Chilly Willy cartoons  were produced by the same studio that gave us Woody Woodpecker, Walter Lantz.  Judge for yourselves!

Chilly Willy aka "El Pinguino" is a well-known Laredo marketing figure