Opel Endless Summer: Hang : copy – paste : loose
September 4th, 2007 by shivamat
Some days ago a friend of mine sent me some pictures of the new Opel Astra Endless Summer campaign and surprisingly i found their bad created keyvisual look quite similar to an icon i made for the book: surf – a visual exploration of surfing. It is published at the Die-Gestalten-Verlag.
Maybe i should hang loose, maybe not. Maybe i would, if they copy/paste that icon and created something good. But these charlatans (McCann Agentur für Verkaufsmarketing , Sponsoring und Event GmbH in FFM (Germany)) did not.
they use this little peace in print, web and even in a tv-commercial.
This is the original icon i made:
That’s what they made:
The visual and a fantastic tv-shot by cargo: =o|
Hang schmoose
(32 votes, average: 4.84 out of 5)
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This is awful. I would go after them!
The big companies sue you at once if you violate their logo by any means, but they seem to have no respect for someones copyright nor shame for exploiting every movement that comes up to be a trend. Although Opel is a good brand for my opinion the guys they hired for establishing this product for a certain customers group are the people you hate for copying every style that was real or street or whatever to make it hollow. What has surf got to do with anything but consuming anyhow?
yeah, go after them, man. At the very least they would have to pull the campaign. At best, a nice payout for you, maybe. I’m no lawyer, but blind freddy could see they ripped this.
i reckon you just hit paydirt
I think this calls for a legal punch in the face, amirite?
That sucks. The thing that sucks is most people cant sue because it would cost more to hire a lawyer than what they would get back after lawyer fees. I would definitley at least send a letter.
Definitely a ripoff. the shape and length of the strokes is the same except the designer probably straightened out the corners on the wrist. You have proof, I would definitely consult this with a lawyer at the very least. Good luck, and I hope to see your follow-up success story on here soon.
a letter to Opel probably wouldn’t go astray…in good faith i’d imagine they’d pay you the design fees, and take the other turkey’s to the cleaners
you have to do something about this – it’s so blatent! Surely if you win in court they have to pay all your fees?
I think there is nearly no chance to go a legal way. The german copyright does not work here, because logos, signets etc. are not copryight protectable (f.e. the logo of the first german television channel ARD ist not copyright protected!). Of course if you have a Trademark (R) on your work it IS proteced!
If you want to know more (in german):
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kleine_Münze
Go for it – sue the bastards.
Opel sucks.
We recently got an Asstra, and its SHITE.
Badly made, unreliable, total rubbish. Poor performance, gas guzzler. And it was expensive!! We could have got 2 new cars of many different brands.
The wankers took flippin ages to fix the shite when it brokedown in the first 6 months.
we got no responce, and have reported them to the ombudsman.
What I wonder is “What does that mean or what letter is it in American sign language. It sure looks familar and I have’t seen either site before tonight.
Hey, what happened now? Did you sue Opel or did they offer you money? let us know how it turned out.
This is really a sass.
“Johannes Bayer” is wrong. i am a german designer->i have to deal with lots of that stuff. here in germany we have something called “geistiges eigentum”, wich, in a nutshell, means that EVERYTHING you create (piece of art, logo, poem scribbled on a napkin) is your “property” by law. you do not have to get it copyrighted.
so please sue them. they do deserve it.
(just think of all the money they make with your logo…)
Hi,
I would like to use your image on my new product if you think it is cool enough. please contact me.
Thanks, Trevor
The unfortunate thing about your icon is that even though something in the U.S. is automatically considered copyright when its created it may not be copyrightable.
Our firm designed a simple FPO logo for a client’s client and the art included thw words or name of their company. Well that second client wanted to use the logo we designed without paying us. So they had another artist recreate it. We sent our application in for copyrights immediately after this incident took place and got it back as unapproved due to the fact that the art we created in it was considered too common to copyright.
Hey i think your logo looks pretty sweet.
would it be okey if i can just use the hang loose sign?
please write back…
Good luck getting any responce out of them. We have an AssWipe, oppes, an Asstra rotting in the street infront of our house. My wife wont drive it anymore. why? Because the engine cut out on the highway, like at 120km/h. that means no power steering, the whole car becomes sluggish. Talk about DANGEROUS and UNRELIABLE. We got no joy from the dealer nor higher-ups. And like its said above: we cant afford to sue them. I am SO HAPPY that the company is going under. (share price 0.3 haha from a high of 2 !! haha)
yummy