maybe all proceeds from Believe the perfume will go to Believe the charity site?

Mondonation about Britney's new fragrance and logo stealing..

"It stinks."

How do we know the charity site didn't license the logo to Spears, et. al.?

@wring: And maybe pigs will fly?

i believe...

...that someone's career jumped the shark a looong time ago

I just took the time to send this brief note to the folks at Elizabeth Arden by way of the "contact us" link in the source article.

While it is always tempting to take potshots and score a verbal coup with stinging barbs and sarcastic repartee, a more productive method of being noticed and taken seriously by corporations is to be professional and succinct. I present the letter I wrote as a sample of such communication:

>>>>>>>

I was deeply saddened to see the blatant rip-off of mondonation's "believe" logo by graphic designers for use on the new line of Brittney Spears fragrance products that your company is about to premier. How ironic that such a stinky act of plagarism should be chosen to grace a fragrance. I hope you will have the initiative to do what's right and choose a new slogan/logo ahead of the product's release.

As an alternative, I would suggest donating a majority of the profits from the sale of the fragrance to some of the charities supported by the sales efforts of mondonation's line of apparel, or perhaps even a partnership with mondonation themselves.

Your well-respected brand name should not be forced to endure the kind of negative publicity that will surely follow should the "believe" fragrance line come to market in its present format.

Thank you for taking the time to read this letter.

Regards,
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

>>>>>>>

At least they used a different font.

Font looks the same to me.

@beyond: [www.younggogetter.com]

@bobosims:

Respectfully, I'd like to point out that if you're going to scold people and talk about writing a professional letter, you may want to spell the word "plagiarism" correctly in your example.

@bobosims:

don't quit your day job...

WOW. That's a pretty blatant copy. Even the colors are the same?

I wonder what it smells like. Honestly, this wasn't the brightest licensing idea in the world. What kind of smell comes to mind when you think of Brittney Spears? It's not pleasant.

@acambras: duly noted, and NOT a scolding. Having seen how the backlash from these stories can get out of hand rapidly, I thought I would get the ball rolling in a productive manner.

If you're feeling scolded, then that's a different matter entirely, but not really my problem, now is it?

@gibsonic:

I'm not planning on doing so, though I am puzzled as to why you would offer such a salient piece of advice in such an abrupt manner? Fret not my friend, should ever I desire to actually quit my day job, I'll be sure to consult with you first.

Now then, both of you... "Get off my plane!"

I believe that anyone who buys this perfum will smell like a whore and squander their money on the road towards becoming total white trash.
Believe

@beyond: Smell? Hmmmm...an overflowing dumpster in the middle of a hot August afternoon at a trailer park?

The font is different...look at how the end of the tail of the "e" curls up in mondonations and is relatively flat in the other. As for lameness, this is definitely high on the scale. Unfortunately, unless mondonation trademarked the logo I don't think there's anything they can do about it from a legal standpoint. I'm also not sure how many people want to smell like Britney Spears right now either.

Love Britney's slogan, too...she should read it.

I am a designer: while its entirely possible that they stole the design, its more likely its just a coincidence. First dissect the first logo. Simple font, basic colors, trendy 90s style of coloring the i differently and the whole "i" phenomena... I bet it can be shown that the charity seems to mimic other logos.

Seeing this on a couple of sites and all the hate expressed against Brittney, I am writing off as a "hating the player" reaction. People need to stop expressing dissatisfaction with their own lived by attacking those who have more or have succeeded.

actually i prefer the font used on brit brit's logo. looks like futura....mmmmmm futura.....

@Craig: A trademark doesn't have to be registered for it to be a proprietary mark. Regardless, a logo such as this is also protected by copyright.

@not_seth_brundle: My bad.

I jokingly tried to add 900 bottle to my cart of the perfume and was told "there was not enough in stock" so they auto added how many were in stock.

That number is 585. That seems like a pretty small amount. 33 thousand bucks total.

@ CRAIG: Beyond that a formal copyright can be obtain retroactively if they do not already own one. Remember kiddos all art work in any form is ALREADY protected by copyright laws upon creation unless otherwise stated.

@MyCokesBiggerThanYours: Coincidence though it may be, there is still no excuse for lack of due diligence to ensure that no other similar logos existed.

This, frankly, sucks. I'm a staunch supporter of mondonation and a staunch opposer of all things Britney Spears. So it's not like I can boycott her new fragrance line... I never would have bought it in the first place!

@beyond:
Red Bull, stale cigarettes, and baby spit-up.

Is the trademark registered by Spears? A non-profit might not spend the $ to protect the trademark as aggressively as for profits do.

I, too, am a graphic designer and I call bullshit. Multiple designers can independently come up with very similiar ideas but this is an exact match. There only variation is that the "e" is slightly different. Otherwise, it looks exactly the same. I just don't buy the coincidence theory.

There are plenty of rip off artists out there; Todd Goldman, anyone?

@ptkdude: You mean ASIDE from the obvious reason that if they licensed it they'd be playing up the whole "WE LOVE CHARITY!!!!" bit in the marketing and they aren't?

Aside from that, we don't know. And in other news, other than the obvious, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?*

*Footnote for people that think Spears et al may ACTUALLY have licensed the logo: Mrs. Lincoln refers to Abe Lincoln's wife, and the play refers to the night Abe was shot in the head. Seems like some people here need things spelled completely out for them...

Well, there's evidence that, more than a year ago, Ward Bingham of Mondonation publicly stated that he considered the "Believe" logo a trademark, which would at least imply common law rights if not federal registration protection.

As for copyright protection, there may be an argument there as well. From the Copyright Office's FAQ:

"How do I copyright a name, title, slogan or logo?
Copyright does not protect names, titles, slogans, or short phrases. In some cases, these things may be protected as trademarks. Contact the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, 800-786-9199, for further information. However, copyright protection may be available for logo artwork that contains sufficient authorship. In some circumstances, an artistic logo may also be protected as a trademark. "

Unclear whether the Believe logo is sufficently an artwork to qualify for copyright protection, but the trademark point is a lot clearer. {Prof. Jonathan}

@MyCokesBiggerThanYours: I'm a designer too and if that "coincidence" happened to me, I'd throw a fit. And as we've learned from Todd Goldman, "stealing" is more commonplace than we might want to believe.

@MyCokesBiggerThanYours:
I don't hate Britney for her success, I hate her because she squanders it.
She treats everyone around her with contempt.
so when I say that i believe this perfume will smell like a white trash whore, I mean to say that. Exactly that.
The reason people hate britney has nothing to do with her success.
But people do hate it when people with god given gifts and all the opportunity in the world and they squander it, use drugs with alarming regularity, and have 2 kids with a backup dancer with a history of being unfaithful and a bad father.
Face it Coke, it isn't about success. It is about values. As in Britney has none.
Anyone who knows anything about her knows what sort of person she is....
blank, vapid, self-centered, an attention whore, bad parent, and heavy drug user. This is a person who turned her back on her family because they DARED to express concerns over her irrational behavior and obvious drug use.
Her, LiLo, Nicole Ritchie, and Paris Hilton all think they can do whatever they want and not care what anyone thinks. I believe it was Bruce Willis who said that "Living like that is dangerous. We should all care, at least a little bit, about what others think about us. Not so much the fans, but our families and those who love us. Would Lindsay or Britneys grandmothers be proud of their behavior or upset by it?"
One of the things that stops us from behaving badly, besides our learned ideas of right and wrong, is the idea that our behavior might embarrass or upset those that love us.
So...
I Believe this was a rip off.
I Believe it was intentional.
I believe it won't sell well.
I believe Britney has blown her career.

I believe that the next time I'm tempted to buy another asinine printed t-shirt (e.g. "Yes I have change you homeless piece of shit. Thanks for asking!" or "I'm cute? No shit!" Yes, it is a weakness and I am in recovery. Prayers and slaps accepted.), I'll buy one of these tshirts instead. Thank you mondonation, for helping charities and for helping stupid t-shirt addicts grow up and say something intelligible for a change.

Also, anyone notice that the model for the women's tshirt is that stunning actress from BSG? Best charity ever.