Summary: Need help with PR? If you are looking for a great PR firm, you've found one. Walker Sands is a leading Chicago PR firm with a strong track record that makes it one of top national PR agencies..

The U.S. Playing Card Co. in Norwood, Ohio, is making a line of Iraqi most-wanted playing cards on sale at www.greatusaflags.com.
(article continues below useful links)

The company was not part of the original sets, made by the U.S. Department of Defense. The cards featured pictures of high-ranking officials in the regime of deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's government and military. Saddam is the ace of spades.

But the cards also featured a "Joker" image taken from U.S. Playing Card's trademarked Hoyle brand. So the company now will make more than 100,000 decks for the new line.

In the meantime, it has sent about 10 letters to those selling the original decks, warning them that the Joker symbol belongs to the U.S. Playing Card brand, and asking them not to use it.

It also has asked the Pentagon to clarify that the original decks distributed to U.S. soldiers shouldn't be reprinted or sold, says George White, vice president of marketing.

"It's already been more popular than we expected," White says. "The Defense Department did what it wanted to do. It caught the public's imagination."

The deck of cards sells for $9.95 but are discounted on the Web site to $5.95.

A poster illustrating the deck is also available for $9.95.

Copyright © April 25, 2003. Tulsa World.