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For Immediate Release: January 26, 2001
Royal Bank Copyright Lawyers Demand Corporate Critic Group Change Their Logo, Long-time Guerrilla Member Purged for Boner
VANCOUVER - Guerrilla Media (GM) was forced to take drastic action this week over allegations by the Royal Bank that the group had violated the corporation's famous "lion pawing a globe" trademark. In an attempt to redress a great wrong, GM replaced the logo in question with a satirical version depicting a pig clutching dollar bills.
"When the letter arrived from Royal Bank lawyers Ogilvy Renault last week, we were stunned," said newly installed GM Anime Studios CEO Noam de Plume. "In last fall's animated Daywatch webtoon series, we parodied Stockwell Day's financial ties to big banks like the Royal. However, we didn't realise that one of our own members had sabotaged the project."
During the federal election, GM produced a five-part Internet cartoon called Daywatch, starring Alliance leader Stockwell Day as lifeguard to the rich. A January 15 letter from Royal Bank lawyers alleges GM used the "Lion & Globe Design" in one episode without the corporation's consent.
"The person heading the Daywatch project - Beau Gus Monikker - has been terminated and we have re-tooled the episode in question, replacing the alleged Royal Bank logo with an oinking porker caressing cash," said du Plume. "By not properly parodying a bank that gives hundreds of thousands of dollars to their corporate political buddies in Alliance, Liberal and Tory circles, Monikker gutted our attempt to satirize Canada's right wing."
"You'd think as the boss of GM's Anime Studios, Monikker would have upheld our corporate satire code," said de Plume. "With this kind of comedic laxity at Guerrilla Media, we might as well be telling Knock Knock jokes."
In 1998 and 1999, the Royal Bank shovelled out hundred of thousands of dollars to the big three right-wing parties. In all, the Reform/Alliance kickback was $167,386, the Tories take $192,284 and the Liberal largess a whopping $290,124. Moreover, the downsizing Royal was able to shed nearly 11,000 employees between 1993 and 2000, while reaping more than $11 billion in net income.
"This softening of our hardline anti-corporate stance will only make people confuse us with Adbusters, Rick Mercer or even the Air Farce," said de Plume. "Already, Toronto media outlets are calling us to do interviews about our radical chic personas. This mistake may kill our venerable organization."
Guerrilla Media was once a group of proud Vancouver-based cultural activists who have seen one of their own sell out. What next? Movie rights? Merchandising? Guest appearance on Mike Bullard's sad ass show?
to see the re-worked Daywatch episode featuring the satirically-correct bank logo.
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