You don’t have to be a regular reader to know that I’ve been depicting Barack Obama in Hello Kitty regalia for about one year: flags, banners, you name it. Most recently, I did an Obamaman cartoon that depicts our lame superhero president wearing a Hello Kitty logo on his chest.
Now a sharp-eyed FOR points out that an illustrator for the Financial Times has rather brazenly ripped off my meme.
Usually, these things are less than cut and dry. But it’s pretty hard to believe that any illustrator could be unaware of my use of the Hello Kitty imagery to define Obama–it ain’t as branded as Generalissimo El Busho yet, but come on. This one fails the smell test.
Suffice it to say that, if this sort of thing annoys you, it is possible to email the Financial Times a letter to the editor.
20 Comments.
What a pity, because the column which the illo adorns is actually fairly good. And it's in general agreement with Ted's assessment of Obama. Which makes it all the less likely that the author, or illustrator, were unaware of Ted's use of the imagery. Since Ted is one of only a few progressive voices criticizing Obama, it seems like anyone writing such a column would have happened across Ted's opinions while doing their research.
I'm still in the middle of reading the FT column. But this is very quotable:
"He [Obama] has defined success down so far that many kinds of failure now qualify."
I think Ted would agree…
I have to agree with you, Ted, and I NEVER agree with you about things like this.
It IS a good illustration, but since he not only ripped you off, but didn't give you enormous 48pt bold credit/props etc., you have to complain until the FT gives you satisfaction.
It's plagarism. You can and should ask for compensation for it.
Either sue the paper, or get space in their cartoons department for a while…
So you get pissed off when people ignore you and you get pissed off when people try to use your ideas. I guess there really is no pleasing you??
Hmmmmmm . . . first it was Bob Herbert, then this Bromley fellah.
Ted, you know your ideas just "float around" for people to "borrow".
Floating around, floating around, we all float down here . . . . . . .
If you google
Obama Hello Kitty
you get a a LOT of hits- 1.2 million. Here's one from Feb 2008:
http://cynicsparty.com/2008/02/11/senator-unicorn-also-senator-hello-kitty/
"Let Hello Kitty be your spirit animal, Barry"
I think this predates you, Ted. In fact, the first link about you isn't 'til the second page of hits. I think this is just a weird zeitgeist thing, an idea that's just so right for its time that it pops up all over. I believe you came up with it on your own… but apparently, so did a lot of other people.
Russel,
There is a chance that Obama in a superman suit with hello kitty on his chest to make the point that he is all show and to fight is a case of zeitgeist. But it kind of seems like you are avoiding a more obvious conclusion. Why?
btw.
The hello kitty reference at cynicsparty is about Japanese people in Obama City trying to use him as a tourism boost.
It's a parody of the widely known Alex Ross Obama. Was your idea incorporated? Probably. Is it a legitimate issue? No.
Considering how most editorial cartoonists constantly rehash old cartoons and how you frequently get Yahtzee on Cagle I don't think this is similar enough to merit calls of "plagarism".
Even if the concept is used the illustrator put time and thought elsewhere into it. The caricature is original and very well done, the sly facial expression is a original editorial commentary, and let's just face it the man can just flat out draw. The layout and execution bares no resemblance to anything you ever have or ever will do.
While its an important part of the joke the Hello Kitty is a minor part of the drawing. It also actually looks like Hello Kitty. Alex Ross has a more legitimate gripe than you'll ever have and I still don't think it's important.
No it doesn't pass a sniff test, but I think this is some pointless ego stroking on your behalf.
"ripped off my meme"
Either you don't understand what a meme is, or I don't.
Angelo, google it for yourself. A zillion people have played with that idea. This late in the game that illustrator almost certainly lifted it from someone… but not necessarily Ted. It's not *Ted's* meme. It's just a meme.
"It also actually looks like Hello Kitty"
No, I think that even the hello kitty depiction is remarkably similar. A very stripped down version. Ted's at least has a bow. Did you even compare the cartoons?
"While its an important part of the joke the Hello Kitty is a minor part of the drawing."
and the point of the drawing is…
Russel,
You must be banking that no one googles it. I just did.
entry one:
tells about two unrelated stories, one involving Obama, and the other involving hello kitty.
entry two:
A shirt for hello kitty fans who also like Obama. (yep)
entry three:
same
entry four:
same
entry five:
same
entry six:
same
entry seven:
the cynics party article using hello kitty as a synonym for Japanese.
I wonder what your motives are, Russel.
My "motive" is to suggest that if someone said ""Let Hello Kitty be your spirit animal, Barry" several months before Ted started using a similar concept in his cartoons, that Ted can't really claim to "own" the Obama/Hello Kitty meme. You read 7 of 1.2 million hits, so I hardly think that's enough research to refute my point.
That's it for motive, I like Rall's work and I've never read the Financial Times. You're pretty frickin' unobservant, I post here a lot (not as much as you), I'm generally supportive, and I spell my name with two Ls.
Or do you maybe have some devious motive for misspelling my name?
Russell,
We need to be more militant about protecting every little original idea by people like Ted, not less.
It is not easy to come out and say "hey, someone stole my idea."
Part of the reason is because of fear that you are wrong. So one usually self-censors in such cases. This is very convenient for the hacks ripping you off and using your ideas while you slave away, giving them out for free. After you prove the idea was yours, they instantly shift arguments to "but you gave it away for free. What did you expect?".
The fact that I read ten pages of results and not one contained an illustration or idea similar to Ted's does not refute your point.
What refutes your point is the fact that the "spirit animal" referenced in the article you linked us to establishes Obama's Japanese appeal, rather than his terminal cuteness. Furthermore, there is not one illustration linking Obama to Hello Kitty before Ted, much less one which does so while making the same case Ted does. Casual readers of this page from elsewhere in the internet have moved on, and they took what you wrote seriously, as most of us are conditioned to do whenever someone seems confident and dispassionate. Most did not read the page you linked to because they did not know that you did not even read it except to lift the one sentence which contained both of your search terms.
You owe it to Ted to post an apology in comments of the latest blog posting. Please link the readers back to this blog posting so they can see what you are talking about.
Isn't the whole point of memes that they spread? I mean, jeez, I know you're one of those uptight intellectual-property freaks, but this takes the cake…
anon asks:
"Isn't the whole point of memes that they spread?"
meme does not mean you pass off someones creativity as your own!
geez
I respect Mr. Rall but I'm pretty sure he's not the first person to slap "Hello Kitty" on a man's chest. Even if he did the concept of associating someone with a cartoon character has been around for a long while. "Mickey Mouse" isn't just a noun, it's been an adjective for decades too.
I pointed out earlier its a parody of an Alex Ross drawing, which is in turn a parody of a super man drawing, which has been parodied millions of times over. Very few ideas are original enough to claim ownership over. I do not believe this qualifies.
"Very few ideas are original enough to claim ownership over. I do not believe this qualifies."
Your model of the origination of ideas is very convenient for the people who "mine" the ideas of others for a living. Ted provides content for free. Paid writers and, now, cartoonists take his, and other peoples ideas and pass them of as their own. Designers steal ideas from senior art school projects.
You see it play out if you ever work with kids in an elementary school classroom. If you tell the class to draw a picture, you get a lot of identical and similar drawings. There are kids who like drawing, and kids who are in it for the grade. Who do you think copies who? Or do you think that a zeitgeist is governing the way 4 students in a certain area of the class draw the same picture of Dragon Ball Z?
Yes, copycats are out there, and yes, they make a lot of money. Ted came up with an idea, let people copy him, and now someone has profited off of it.
"Ted came up with an idea, let people copy him, and now someone has profited off of it."
Oh Harriet! So the real issue is money? Full disclosure, Ted: how much did you pay Sanrio for the permission to reproduce their property, the internationally recognized image of Hello Kitty?