Archive for May, 2007
Parody T-Shirts or Trademark Infringement?
Posted in Parody T-Shirts on May 20th, 2007I can remember going to the t shirt store as a kid back in the day. These stores were strung down the ocean boardwalk or at the local mall or head shop/ record store. These t-shirt shops had many designs, decals or iron on heat transfers all over the walls covering every square inch of the store were transfers.
Back in the 70′s you could pick a design off the wall like a Tattoo and in less than 5 minutes walk out the door with your brand new t-shirt! Even personalized if you chose. And remember the smell of the Hot Press meeting the transfer? But through all the Farrah Fawcet, Chips, Mork And Mindy, Im with stupid and Kiss transfers was a new breed of humor T Shirt known as “A Parody T-Shirt”. Harmless apparel which basically made you think of the product it was spoofing and lead to the urge to buy that particular brand, remember “Garbage Pail Kids?”.
One of the very first I can remember was Enjoy Cocaine which was spoofing the Coca Cola Logo, at first I walked past this design thinking Coca Cola but with a longer view I was mistaken for what really read Enjoy Cocaine.. How cool I thought! What a great subliminal advertising mind trick. The shirts came by the dozens Dr. Pepper was Now Dr. Pecker and so on.
Well those days are now about gone. With tougher laws being enforced today by Big Corporation’s protecting there Trademarked Logo’s, the Parody T-Shirt is becoming a shirt of the past. More to come on this subject.



