This modern-day David vs. Goliath tale has captured the imagination of the blogosphere!
David Rees, who created the scathing post-9/11 clip art webcomic “Get Your War On,” recently brought our attention to a Jamba Juice advertising campaign that totally, totally rips off the strip. I don’t just mean it uses stock images in a similarly ironic fashion, I mean that it uses exactly the same clip art in exactly the same way…. Rees has called for a boycott of Jamba Juice, so you can do your part by putting down the smoothie and instead of giving them money, give them the mockery that they so richly deserve. (My emphasis)
Yeah, I’m an appropriationist. I take other people’s drawings and twist them into my paintings…. Shepard Fairey, Richard Prince and Jeff Koons have been involved with the legal or court systems over their appropriation….
I’m all for appropriation.Â
Except when this happens: a corporation hires a snappy ad agency that makes something in the style of a cool artist.
In this case, Emeryville’s Jamba Juice has aped the hilariously drowl work of David Rees. Actually, “aped” is an under-exaggeration, they have copied (down to the speech bubbles) Rees’s “Get Your War On” comic series. Loads of companies do something similar. refering to something cooler than themselves raises their hip-ness factor….
But is it okay to just take the work of an artist, without asking, and use it to sell your product? Fck no. (My emphasis)
I’m rarely (maybe never) one to advocate an expansion of intellectual property law, and I’m trying very hard to imagine how I would feel if Rees ripped on Jamba Juice instead of the other way around, but I feel as though the law should provide remedy for this sort of shameless ripoff.
(By the way, the Andy on the Road link is a must-read. It’s a very thoughtful post, with a good discussion in the comments about how annoyed I have a right to be re: Jooby Juice.)
More soon! Including a totally serious post from me about all of this.
Juice sucks, drink wine.
Know Hope.