The Hits Keep Coming: Hot Topic Is Selling Another Eerily Familiar Design
We really hope there's a good explanation for this. Hot Topic is selling Twilight perfume, a fragrance that comes in a bottle very similar to Nina, by Nina Ricci.
This is not the first time we've written about Hot Topic doing this. Just last week we wrote about one of Hot Topic's vendors, Newbreed Girl, selling an obvious copy of a design. We're not sure if this perfume is Hot Topic branded or if it's from another vendor, so we don't know if it was an intentional rip off by Hot Topic, but we think it's clear that they need to do some research on the designs they sell to make sure they're not selling plagiarized work. Unless that's alty now.
Thanks to Christina!
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Comments:
I think that it might be a third party vendor and not Hot Topic this round. I've seen it at Borders also which leads me to believe that its the perfume manufacturers issue.
Ha, Borders books are selling this thing too.
Funny stuff. I hope someone get sued!
Is it s stolen bottle design? Or did the makers of the original bottle have too many and either sold bottles or sold the license to make the similar bottle to someone else?
Or is there proof that it was stolen?
Well since the bottle is shaped like an apple, maybe they just took a cutting of the original.
shameless nina by nina ricci plug (the real perfume, not hot topic's knockoff)
Maybe the perfume company rebranded their own product? You could put a Twilight label on a truss and make money off of it lately.
Uh wow... just joined Consumerist a few weeks ago, and now I've seen two designs "from" Hot Topic which aren't original? That kinda sucks, makes me feel like not shopping there for anything anymore, lol.
I think people running out of ideas, lol.
Anna :)
motto... cheat until it ain't profitable? perhaps Hot Topic might not be the direct offender but then again there haven't particularly been a surge of stories related to them instituting greater oversight on their vendors. maybe it's just easier/more profitable to do nothing or look the other way in this regards?
Well, not sure if I trust Nina, who makes perfume but keeps spelling 'scent' as 'cent'.
Here's the basenote page for Nina: [www.basenotes.net]
Perhaps Twilight is made by the same house (rebranded to fit the movie) or Nina is buying non-exclusive packaging.
All Twilight branded merchandise was made by NECA ([www.necaonline.com]) and not Hot Topic or Borders. The perfume had a limited run of 300 bottles sold at Hot Topic for $48. (I have a friend who owns bottle 93/300)
What most likely happened is that, rather than spending the time to create their own apple like bottle, they bought 300 bottles off Nina and made a new perfume.
So, you really can't lay this at Hot Topic's doorstep anymore than you could hold Walmart responsible if Pepsi decided to paint their cans red and add the Dynamic Ribbon to their cans tomorrow.
And has anyone bothered to ask Nina if she's mad about this?
It's possible that behind the scenes these fragrances weren't selling well and so Nina licensed them out to Hot Topic, that's what I'd like to hope but judging by how badly HT has been copying lately, doesn't seem likely.
Saw this on Perez Hilton on the third as well, almost an identical picture to this post.
Ha. An unoriginal perfume bottle design for an unoriginal book/movie series.
Oh, spoke to my friend who apparently owns both Nina and Twilight... they smell nothing alike. So the perfume is different, though the bottles are the same.
What on earth does the apple motif of the bottle have to do with an emo teenage girl and her vampire boyfriend anyway?
@Xenobiologista: The apple is an allusion to the book of Genesis (Forbidden Fruit) and has been featured on the cover of Twilight since it's original hardcover run in 2005 (A year before the launch of 'Nina'.)
Each of the books in the Twilight series have had a single item or small group of items, in white and red, on a black cover. An apple held in white hands, a red & white flower, a red ribbon, and chess pieces have all been featured on the covers of the series.
But Hot Topic's caters to such an original clientele!
Also, if you buy Twilight perfume, you should be shot out of a cannon aimed at the sun. Just saying.
This was pointed out on PerezHilton.com days ago.
why would you ever even make/use/own/think about twilight perfume?? what does it smell like? dead rotting vampires or suburban teenagers?
@seraphicstar: I would guess that it smells like freesia since that's what the main character is supposed to smell like.
(Everything I know about Twilight is from [cleolinda.livejournal.com] since I've never read the books.)
I'm more disturbed by the existance of a Twilight perfume.
This is not only a Hot Topic product. Borders Books & Music is selling it too.
But will it make me sparkle?
I happen to know a lot about the fragrance industry... I frequently talk to several fragrance reps, including ones for Coty Prestige, Beaute Prestige International (a unit of Shiseido), P&G, Estee Lauder, Clarins Fragrance Group, and Bvlgari Parfums. I also post on Basenotes.
Nina is distributed in the US by Coty Prestige (though made by Puig... Coty and Puig have a US distribution alliance), and it's a fruity floral under the Nina Ricci brand (and is very popular at stores like Macy's). It's not your grandmother's L'Air du Temps.
As for Twilight, I've never sniffed it, not even when I was in Hot Topic just recently. (They don't even offer a tester bottle!) However, it's also supposed to be a fruity floral. And guess what... the fragrance blogs like NowSmellThis are all buzzing over the similarities over the two bottles, too. Perfume bottles are typically copyrighted, patented, and/or trademarked... I've seen US Patent & Trademark Office applications from Beaute Prestige International for the Jean Paul Gaultier torso bottles and the Narciso Rodriguez for Her/for Him bottles.
Coty should consider legal action, even if the actual perfume inside the bottle is not identical to Nina.
Eh, I'm not sure this is such a big deal. The whole "poisonous apple" thing is not that new. I used to buy Hypnotic Poison for my wife: [[www.amazon.com]]. Well, I say used to because that was before she turned out to be a witch and killed all of my elf friends.
Can we officially set fire to the entire franchise now? Please?
It's like hot topic is actually operating in some sort of Chinese wormhole that is allowed to "pirate" designs and existing products and sell it our malls. Pretty ingenious.
@Kiersten Drew: I'd agree, if it's using the Twilight license there are likely more people involved than just hot topic.
@keram2:
I would buy it if I liked the scent. I used to buy this one perfume by Elvira, Mistress of the Dark called "Evil." It smelled great. I wish I could find it again.
@pinkpuppet: My cousin gave me the book for Presentmas even though she knows I loathe it.
It's a paperback. I have a fireplace. I'm contemplating.
@kylo4isunabletocomment,why?: Serves Perez Hilton right for licensing his name and slapping it on hideous notepads and such.
good lord, imagine if Consumerist discovers Steve Madden shoes!! or Forever 21!! this kind of thing happens ALL THE TIME with perfumes, shoes, bags, clothes, you name it. if you start cataloging these as you see them you'll never stop.
There is a good explanation.
Hot Topic steals other peoples work.