Stephen Newton, a regular contributor to this blog, and I had a lively discussion here about what would happen if a brand was hijacked by an open source community and if it would be a good thing or not.
Stephen raised the possibility that a far-right party could take the FCUK brand and launch t-shirts with messages inciting racial hatred, such as FCUK Jews. It actually got me in a little bit of American hot water, but I thought it was an interesting, if left field, strand to the open source marketing discussion currently emerging. (One that Stephen vehemently disagrees with btw).
However, it seems that it was in fact not that crazy at all. Today's Observer reports that the UK pro-hunt lobby, the new British militancy, has done exactly what Stephen and I were discussing.
Otis Ferry, son of Bryan and pin-up of the crazed right has co-opted the FCUK brand by printing up T-shirts with 'FCUK Yer Ban' on the front and posing in the UK press wearing one. And French Connection aren't impressed. In fact they are going legal. It seems like a wrong move to me. I would say Otis is extending the brand. But maybe French Connection don't want to be linked with the crazed Countryside Alliance.
Sometimes, the truth really is stranger than fiction.
The criticism you received elsewhere may have missed your point, but you wouldn’t be the first person to be strung-up over a misunderstanding. Both this and the Otis Ferry story illustrate my point. Open source promotion (I don’t believe what you describe is open source marketing) is vulnerable to take over by small unrepresentative groups who will discourage others from buying into the brand.
Posted by: Stephen Newton | December 20, 2004 at 11:00 AM