— Karen Brennan, Attorney
While watching the Academy Awards on Sunday night, the winner of the Animated Short Films category definitely caught my attention. The winner was Logorama – a 16-minute French anumation created around the use of 3,000 well-known trademarks.
The plot is described as a police chase through Los Angeles which includes a machine gun-toting Ronald McDonald who is a fugitive running from the police, played by the Michelin men. Every inch of the picture is made up of a trademark, logo or character, instantly causing sensory overload (see a prior blog by Brent Lorentz titled Sensory Overload here). According to Wikipedia, the creators described the film as the presentation of “an over-marketed world” where “logotypes are used to describe an alarming universe (similar to the one that we are living in) with all the graphic signs that accompany us everyday in our lives.” During his Oscar acceptance speech, the producer opened by thanking “the 3,000 unofficial sponsors” and assured them that “no logos were harmed in the making of the project.”
Talk about Logorama is heating up on the Internet with most people wondering how they got away with it. In a brief clip, I noticed sporadic use of the registration symbol. One blog includes a quote from one of the creators after the film aired at Sundance, noting “no brand owners had objected yet,” but “we hope there is no CEO of McDonalds here tonight.” While everyone has a right to present artistic commentary, it will be interesting to see if any brand owners object now that the film has received so much press.
Another interesting tidbit – when I tried to watch a YouTube video clip on one website, it had been removed due to a copyright claim.
Update: Here is a link to the video that has not been removed due to copyright (yet, anyway).