The twenty-year panic that Procter and Gamble's moon-and-thirteen-stars trademark was Satanic, fought in federal court at a cost of millions.
Documented
From crate mark to courtroom
Wharf hands marked Star candle crates with a moon-and-stars device; the company formalized it as a man-in-the-moon over thirteen stars for the original colonies, trademarked in 1882. After Satanism rumors surfaced in 1980-81, P&G sued repeatedly, and in 2007 a Salt Lake City jury awarded $19.25 million against four former Amway distributors who had spread the rumor through a voicemail system, under the Lanham Act.
Assessment: Documented in federal court: the 1851 origin, the 1882 trademark, and a jury verdict that priced the rumor.
Stories
The confession that never aired
The rumor's engine was the tale that a P&G executive confessed Satan worship on the Phil Donahue show, an appearance that never happened. At the 1982 peak the company fielded 15,000 calls and letters in two months, and variants found three sixes in the moon man's curls.
Assessment: Stories: a talk-show confession nobody can tape, because it never aired. The perfect rumor cites a source everyone remembers and nobody can find.
Interesting claims
Fear as sales strategy
Read it as a market event, not a theology: the rumor flared in the years a multi-level competitor's distributor army needed a reason to move shelves. Fear was the pitch, and the courtroom is where folk demonology met discovery requests.
Assessment: Interesting: the most litigated logo legend in history, because it ended in front of juries.
Sources and further reading
Procter and Gamble 1882 trademark, man-in-moon over thirteen stars, from 1851 Star candle crate marks
Minneapolis Tribune, Mar 1980, 'Rumor Giving Company a Devil of a Time', first press account
P&G v. Haugen et al., D. Utah 2007: $19.25 million jury award, reported by AP/NBC, Mar 20 2007