Put a Price on This, Your Honor

MasterCard International’s current ad campaign — giving prices for various items and then describing the experience of buying them as “priceless” — has generated numerous parodies. But the credit card company isn’t laughing at an ad in that style on Home Box Office for its comedy series Arliss. MasterCard is suing HBO for $15 million, charging the gag ad “knowingly and willfully misappropriates” its copyrights and trademarks. “The ads are clearly a parody and a permissible form of creative advertising,” says an HBO spokesman, but MasterCard says while a joke is one thing, using their idea for a commercial purpose is another. (AP) ...Swiping a creative concept: $15 million. Watching humorless banking executives sputter indignantly: priceless.