Entertainment For Lively Minds
Selfridges AREN'T bobbins. you know they're not, they're really not
Posted by DogFacedBoy on 30 October 2010 - 6:47pm.
Its clear from the picture that the late great Chris Sievey\Frank Sidebottom has been used as "inspiration" for this year's Christmas window display. Homage or ripoff? Has anyone asked Little Frank?
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Wow
surely some kind of fee has been paid/acknowledgment made?
Not to my knowledge
a member of his family and sometime manager Jon Ronson said that they've had no contact.
The designer's (Erin Thompson) blog has already got a couple of comments asking about the display\Frank.
http://mystuffandnosense.blogspot.com/2010/10/christmas-is-here.html#com...
She's removed the comments
If you can't stand the heat, etc...
I saw that too.
Probably already with their legal bods. It'll be interesting to see what tomorrow brings.
Jon Ronson's been tweeting about it today
http://twitter.com/jonronson
# They'll talk to their manager and email him. Live tweeting ends. about 6 hours ago via Echofon
# You completely nicked the idea from sidebottom. He wore the exact same head. You've got loads of people on the Internet very upset. about 6 hours ago via Echofon
# He's through. He's telling them. About the copyright. They seem mystified. He's spelling his name. about 6 hours ago via Echofon
# He's pressing 3 about 6 hours ago via Echofon
# Ringing. about 6 hours ago via Echofon
# Okay. Joel phoning @selfridges customer services. Live tweeting begins. about 6 hours ago via Echofon
Terrible.
I have emailed their customer services (customerservices@selfridges.com) to ask them to clarify. I'll let you know how they respond
I got this helpful response from them today
That...
...is about as gracious and right-thinking a response as could reasonably be expected. They could so easily have gone the "go on then, sue us" route, but they did the right thing and backed up a nice apology with something real. Ten grand must buy a reasonable chunk of statue, I reckon.
I'm impressed.
Nicely put, well done Selfridges
The family have announced that the money will be going to a cancer charity rather than to the statue fund. Fair enough!
I'm also in chock
Christmas window display ?
Already ?
Never mind Christmas
I was in Sainsburys yesterday and they had hot cross buns
British reference confusion
What on earth are hot cross buns ?
Are they similar to the swedish semla*, I wonder ?
* Semla, plural semlor, also known by the names; fastlagsbulle, fettisdagsbulle, hetvägg; seasonal sweet buns flavoured with cardamom. The top of the bun is cut off, some of the bun is hollowed out and the hole is stuffed with a mixture of the hollowed out bun, almond paste and whipped cream, more whipped cream is sprayed on top of the bun, the top put back on and dusted with icing sugar.
In some regions eaten in a bowl with warm milk.
Originally only eaten on Shrove Tuesday, in my childhood only sold in stores from that week and just a few weeks longer. Now appears in shops as early as before New Years Eve...and by Shrove Tuesday people are sick of the sight of them.
Sort of but not quite.
They're a sweet spiced bun, like Semla, but not filled in any way. Instead a white dough cross is put on the top of the bun (or it can be piped with icing).
More here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_cross_bun
As has been mentioned elsewhere
their PR chief will get in on Monday morning, open up their email account and pick up the phone "Errr, Barbara, do we know a Frank Sidebottom?......'
Hmmm
looks like you can leave a comment here:
http://bit.ly/cKZKWJ
although I had to open a google blog account or something to do so.
edit: sorry - that's the same link as DogFacedboy's.
Betty Boop
?
nah -
the kiss curl, maybe, but everything else - apart from the eyelashes - is a deliberate homage/tribute/rip-off of a dead man's creation to flog tarty undies*
*delete as applicable.
Doing
the Doop?
i think not
And just to confirm..
None of this lot look much like Betty fucking Boop.
Selfridges should, at the very least, chip in a few bob to the fund which as been set up to erect a statue in memory of Chris/Frank in either Timperley or Altrincham.
calm down Len
it was merely an observation from what popped into my head when I saw the original image
I think...
...Lenny was agreeing with you, in the sense that Selfridges could never claim it was based on Betty Boop, but was obviously Frank-inspired. I certainly don't think he was having a pop - the crossness was at them, not you.
At least, that's how I read it.
Spot-on, Bear.
Not having a go at you at all, James.
"I'm okay
you're so-so, Ooh oo"
If there isn't...
...some kind of large fee coming Chris's estate's way VERY soon, I trust there will be PR retribution.
Or
Bill Haley's estate
"Christmas is Really Fantastic"
Is the best Christmas song ever written.
To have those window displays jig along to an endless loop of that song would be very special.
As long as Frank/Chris' family and friends are OK with it, of course.
oh blimey, it's Christmas
My first thought was
"Oh? It's a Betty Boop Frank Sidebottom mash-up. Tasteless.".
Terribly misjudged. I'd hope that this was an unconscious "tribute" rather than a conscious rip-off. But even if it was unconscious, *surely* someone, somewhere along the line should have noticed and said something?! Actually, whatever it is, a donation to the fund is the least Selfridges can do...
Mad Men tribute
I'm bracing myself for a typically slippery ad-men excuse, probably involving the word "tribute". Here's a perfect example of this from 2009.
Firstly, a very clever video using stop-motion techniques:
Secondly, an Olympus advert which ripped off the idea without crediting the original:
When challenged about this in the comments underneath the video on YouTube, Olympus gave this astonishing response:
"Some of the comments we have read here suggest that we should mention the creator of "A wolf loves pork", Mr Taijin Takeuchi.
While we were looking for a way to realise a story describing "a journey through time" based on printed images, we were inspired by Mr Takeuchi's brilliant work. For this reason we intentionally quoted his work in our little movie while showing full respect to his original idea. We didn't mention his name because we did not want to do so without his prior agreement.
However after considering some of the comments posted here we have decided to add credits to him and his work, which we obviously absolutely love."
It's worth re-reading the slipperiest bit here:
"...we intentionally quoted his work in our little movie while showing full respect to his original idea..." ["intentionally quoted" = "ripped off"]
"We didn't mention his name because we did not want to do so without his prior agreement..." [Well,why not ask him then?]
Bleurgh!! Does that kind of thing stand up in court??
Christmas spirit in November
I'm so glad my prediction was wrong - Olympus bad, Selfridges good!
I notice....
...that this is only in the London store. For me, it's the little triangle cut out of the cartoon iris which is the clincher. Poor Chris, even in death, someone is taking his ideas to make a shedload of money. Again.
Almost but not quite
It's almost a nice tribute, but the fact that it's not even acknowledged as such is a bit poor. It should really be the Manchester store anyhow, people up there genuinely loved Chris/Frank - witness the public funeral/send-off.
I would hope that they decide to do the right thing and either acknowledge & pay, or remove the display. I would hope it's actually the first option. Perhaps they could add an "Oh Blimey It's Christmas" banner.
Chris seemed to always be a source of good ideas. Pity he never capitalized on any of them himself. However he will always be a legend in my house, more so than any number of "proper" famous people. I miss Frank more than he would ever have imagined.
I seem to
have occupied a parallel universe during the past few years in which Chris Sievey/Frank Sidebottom didn't exist. I had never heard of him until his passing was flagged up by the Massive. I've got no idea what he did,or when or where he did it, but he obviously had a lot of followers out there. Still, despite not having any remote rememberance of him, bad cess on Selfridges for image theft, without so much as a by-your -leave.
Did everyone see this?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-11663682
HURRAH!
Credit to Selfridges for acting quickly. Sounds like a good result.
Cheers for posting, HH, hadn't seen that.
Aye..
Champion result all round, really.
definitely
I am glad that there are people out there protecting Frank's legacy (mostly the fans, which is fantastic), and I'm glad that display is going to stay there with suitable attribution. It's actually rather good.
It was just rather foolish that no-one thought to check the copyright.
Good for them
although I hope they are taking the 10 grand back from their "creative" team.
I'd love to have been party
to some of the conversations that went on over the weekend and this morning!
They probably went something like this...
"WHAT... THE... HELL... WERE... YOU... THINKING?!?!?!"
Merry Christmas everyone.
Good news and fair play all round.
OP title reword suggestion
Selfridges aren't bobbins?
Selfridges are really fantastic?