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The über-marketers at Wolf Greenfield in Boston have shot a hat trick with their 2006 holiday card, which is an 11x17-inch advent calendar depicting a Currier and Ives woodcut scene. (Click on the picture to see it full-size.) There are at least six panels that open up with messages underneath:

• A cast iron stove opens up to reveal a pie and the message, "Our Chemical Group wishes you a

  C₁₂H₂₂O₁₂  sweet  holiday and a New Year filled with high yields."

• A sleeping cat, which underneath reveals 12 mice huddling around her and the message, "For 2007, our Biotechnology Group hopes your best ideas replicate themselves."

• "Home Sweet Home" embroidered in a frame over the fireplace, which lifts up to show a wall safe and the message, "Our Trademark & Copyright Group sends goodwill to you and your b®ands.  May they be at least suggestive of a fanciful and safe holiday."

• A control box for an electric train opens to show the wires inside and a message, "Our Electrical and Computer Technologies Group sends its wishes for charged capacitors, error free code & terabytes of holiday cheer."

• A boy and girl throwing snowballs opens up to show the kids building a snowman and the message, "May all hostile activity toward you cease and desist this holiday season. -- From our Litigation Group."

• A greeting card duplicating the Wolf Greenfield card opens up to say, "Holiday Greetings," and shows signatures from friends at the firm.

A "hat trick" is hockey slang for three goals in a row.  Wolf Greenfield, a 64-lawyer intellectual property firm, has done it again.  It previously sent out holiday cards depicting a Mad magazine fold-in (see see "Wolf Greenfield Goes MAD With Holiday Greetings" at http://www.pbdi.org/pages/magazine.asp?Action=DrawArticle&ArticleID=32) and a holiday card designed as a "patent" on the "invention" of the holiday card complete with inventors' names such as Holly Day and Isabella Ringing.

"Every year, Sally Crocker (Director of Client Services) pulls together a crack team of attorneys, graphic designers and illustrators to come up with the concept and deliver it as a holiday card in a short period of time," Jay Wager, Senior Manager of Business Development.  "Her efforts have developed an "anticipatory" mindset with our clients, colleagues and friends.  Our attorneys are frequently asked, "So what's your card going to be this year?"  Sally has successfully differentiated Wolf Greenfield amongst a sea of generic holiday marketing."