You Win Or You Die

Helping a client win in the court of public opinion requires that the legal issues be framed in a way that the public can easily relate to and understand.  Tried and true methods of getting the public on the client's side include casting the client as a victim of injustice, an underdog, or a David fighting against Goliath.  The lawyers representing two food truck operators who have sued the City of Chicago have produced a video that masterfully invokes these sentiments in a clever and creative way.  They have used imagery derived from the Emmy Award winning title sequence of HBO's Game of Thrones to frame the lawsuit as the Game of Food Trucks, a game (or lawsuit) that their clients must win to survive.

Chicago, like most major cities, has always had food trucks.  It is common to see them parked outside of construction sites, surrounded by workers buying a doughnut for breakfast or a sandwich for lunch.  In Chicago, the hours of operations of these catering trucks were limited, and they were prohibited from serving food prepared on the truck.  Therefore, the operators would prepare or buy the food at a brick-and-mortar facility, load the truck, and drive to a location where they would find customers.

A few years ago, entrepreneurs in Chicago began to operate gourmet food trucks, which had become popular in cities such as Los Angeles, Portland, Oregon, and Austin, Texas.  These trucks operated in the same way as the traditional catering trucks; the operators would prepare the food at a brick-and-mortar facility, load the truck, and drive to a location.  As they developed a following, they would use social media to alert their customers to the time and place where they would be located.  As their numbers grew, some of the entrepreneurs formed the Illinois Food Truck Association, and petitioned the City of Chicago to ease its restrictions to allow more hours of operation and the preparation of food on the trucks.

In July the Chicago City Council passed an ordinance that allowed food trucks to roam the streets from 5 a.m. to 2 a.m. and to serve food prepared on the truck.  However, the ordinance prohibited a food truck from parking within 200 feet of a restaurant, and required the trucks be outfitted with a G.P.S. device so that the truck movements and locations can be monitored.

The lawsuit challenging these restrictions was filed November 13, 2012.  Here is the video the lawyers produced that accompanied the filing of the suit:



Is something like this effective?  The lawyers from the Institute for Justice included a link to the video in their press release announcing the suit had been filed.  The local PBS outlet, WTTW, produces a program where a panel of journalists recap the week's news.  On the November 16, 2012 show, they begin a discussion of the food truck ordinance and the lawsuit at the 12:20 mark. Chicago Tonight: The Week in Review: 11/16 | Chicago Tonight | WTTW.   Judge the effectiveness for yourself.

Finally, in case you have not seen it, here is the title sequence from Game of Thrones: