Kicker - In Vogue before it was cool

NICK EICHER, HOST: The owner of a humble English pub recently stood his ground against a massive corporation and won!

Mark Graham runs a small business called the Star Inn at Vogue, borrowing the name of the tiny village where it’s situated—Vogue in the county of Cornwall.

Graham was minding his business when an impressive letterhead arrived in the mail from the massive media conglomerate Conde Nast, publisher of, can you guess the title, rhymes with “rogue”?

Yes, the publisher of British Vogue magazine demanded that Graham change his name!

GRAHAM: Well, me and my wife, Rachel, we've been here 17 years. No problems. But I did think they were being a little, um, heavy handed shall we say.

Yeah we shall say, and besides, these trademark matters, it’s all about who’s first, and the pub and the town were there first.

The audio here from the BBC:

GRAHAM: Well, I just basically explained to them that we’ve been here for 200 years—well the village has been here for 200 years—the pub slightly less than that…

The magazine came along in 1916, making it a relative spring chicken by comparison. Graham wrote back, “I see no record of you seeking permission from the villagers of Vogue for your glossy magazine.”

So he refused. And as it turns out, Conde Nast backed off and noted that further research by their team would have headed off the initial request.

Sorry to bother you, mate.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

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