I owe I owe, it’s off to rip off Disney we go. At lest that is what the designers of this brilliant x-rated advertisement is now singing (warning, semi NSFW).
This was the brilliant ad design for Jamieson’s Raspberry Ale (yuck) came up with. The ad pictures a very vivacious version of Snow White or “Ho White” in bed with the seven dwarfs smoking a cigarette. They even go so far as to rename some of the dwarves to Filthy, Smarmy and Randy (ha ha, very clever).
What the designers of this juvenile ad spot didn’t take into account is the ire of Disney. The ad didn’t last too long because the campaign’s website www.anythingbutsweet.com is now kaput and you won’t find any references to this ad on the company’s web page, so clearly Disney contacted these morons in a pretty swift manner. I’m sure some lawsuits will follow too.
Besides Apple, no company defends their copyright more vigorously then Disney does. They even got copyright/trademark laws changed (due to some hefty lobbying of Congress) to protect Mickey Mouse before he became Public Domain. So, the story here is, do not mess with Disney. In particular they do not find humorous any parodies involving the Disney Princesses and x-rated references. They have gone to great lengths to ensure that no one in the main stream corrupts their associated works with these kind of references. “Ho White” was doomed to failure from the beginning..
The Foundry, the makers of Jamieson’s Raspberry Ale (again yuck!), claims that the idea was to try and sell their fruit-flavored beer to Australians with their it’s “anything but sweet” ad campaign. Guess that didn’t work out too well.
October 16th, 2009 at 3:13 pm
Fat chance of Disney getting anywhere in court on this.
Disney doesn’t own the story of snow white. It like Cinderella was a fairytale in the public domain long before Walt ever drew a doodle in kindergarten.
October 16th, 2009 at 3:19 pm
Actually, they do own the copyright on “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves” but not on “Snow White”, which is an old fairytale that goes back hundreds of years. So, had the company just done “Ho White” yeah, maybe, but they took it a bit to far by adding the dwarves. Biggest evidence of this is the fact that they essentially scrubbed their web page of any reference, something spooked them.
October 16th, 2009 at 5:20 pm
Obviously Disney would love people to believe they own every idea or image ever displayed in one of their films. The fact that it isn’t so doesn’t prevent them from using the legal system like a blunderbus to scare people away for fear of rapidly mounting legal costs eclipsing any revenue gained via the Disney offending marketing campaign. In short fighting Disney costs more than its worth.
It would be interesting to see how Disney reacted to a well healed adversary in a “loser pays” oriented justice system. I suspect they’d keep quiet and let the offense pass by without comment.
Also, I’m not sure about the length of copyright terms in Australia but its a fair bet that they aren’t as long there as they are here since Disney specially pushed through the Copyright Term Extension Act in the US to save Mickey from rightfully entering the Public Domain (aka the Mickey Mouse Protection Act).
In short, its quite possible that even the “Disneyfied” version of Snow White – Dwarves and all – may have already entered the Public Domain in Australia.
October 16th, 2009 at 5:36 pm
Yeah, you could be right, the copyright laws in Australia might be different. Disney has so rigged the system here that I know they still own the copyright on it. I mean, I don’t know of many laws that were specifically changed to help large corporation, but I know for sure that the length of time it takes for something to enter the public domain was specifically changed for Mikey freaking Mouse. It’s kinda BS.
October 16th, 2009 at 9:19 pm
I just wish I could get a DVD (that would work in a US player) of Song of the South. It is a victim of political correctness.
October 16th, 2009 at 9:39 pm
I thought that “hos” were black. That’s what Don Imus said. Oh, but he gives the business news now.
October 16th, 2009 at 10:30 pm
Alt.Binaries.DVD – and a big fat ZippityDoDah! Shhh- Usenet is where ALL the non politically correct Disney movies go to be shunned by their master in ways Bambi and snow white will never understand…
On US copyright being rigged, if anything justifies copyright infringement I think the wholesale purchase of laws favorable to them by Big Media during the second half of 20th century and the complete denial of new works to the Public Domain for a century to come justify it pretty well.
Copyright law had only two modifications in the nearly 200 years it existed prior to 1960, since 1960 there have been 14 significant modifications of copyright, all one sided and in favor of the producer to the detriment of the Public Domain. Interestingly, one of those two pre-1960 modifications was in order to reign in a new and lawless technology that threatened to undermine the entire American music industry, that scourge of the earth known as >>> The Player Piano!!!
October 16th, 2009 at 11:26 pm
Okay here is the skinny, Disney was out on a limb and if the brewer folded it was on for fear of $$ on lawyers. Australian copyright on films published prior to 1955 has lapsed.
“In general terms, copyright in individual frames of movies made before 1 January 1955 has now expired under
Australian law, as has copyright in material created by people who died before that date (provided that the
material concerned was published during their lifetime)” from document G069v03.pdf available on the Australian Copyright Council’s webpage.
October 16th, 2009 at 11:27 pm
my cut and paste didn’t quite work but you get the gist.
October 17th, 2009 at 6:59 am
snow white becomes ho white… sign of the times
October 18th, 2009 at 10:08 am
Disney is no longer clean and pure. they peddle smut just like everyone else.
October 18th, 2009 at 7:21 pm
I must be juvenile too, because I laughed at this ad.