Here’s a really interesting anecdote on how business behaviour has changed in response to consumer empowerment, brought to my attention by the IAB’s Stuart Aitken. In 1962, Coca-Cola slapped a cease and desist order on Andy Warhol for producing this unauthorised image, featuring Coca-Cola bottles.
Not even Warhol was allowed to put his personal stamp on the Coca-Cola brand. Things are very different these days. Coca-Cola actively encourages consumers to interact with its brand and celebrates how its Facebook page - created by two Coca-Cola fans and operated largely autonomously – is now the second most popular site on Facebook.
Here’s another example of artistic subversion of a brand’s intellectual property … this time a Dolce & Gabanna t-shirt, featuring a Martini ad. Once again, the brand owners were smart enough not to call out the lawyers.
I fear that there still brand-owners out there who would respond to the type of creativity exhibited by Warhol and D&G with a solicitors’ letter.