Freedom of expression ups and downs – Laugh it Off beats SAB, but Mail and Guardian gagged

An interesting day for Freedom of Expression in South Africa.

On the positive side, giant booze company SABMiller was defeated by the tiny t-shirt manufacturer Laugh it Off, the Constitutional Court finally ruling that they did have the right to parody the brand (read the story and related reports on IOL, the Mail and Guardian and News24.

Justice Albie Sachs made a pleasing point, quoting from the Finance24 article:

Sachs also warned that big companies attempting to block free speech could do themselves more damage than good.

“… in the present matter simply bringing proceedings against Laugh it Off risked being more tarnishing of Carling Black Label’s association with bonhomie and cheerfulness than the sale of 200 t-shirts could ever have done,” Sachs said.

How could SAB not see this before they started this preposterous lawsuit. They’ve dragged their name through the mud, and made themselves look like bullying scum, picking on a tiny T-shirt company. Time and again companies shoot themselves in the foot, humourless corporate drones in a boardroom seething about a perceived slight, their massive egos unable to bear the slightest jibe, their lawyer friends advising them to sue sue sue (and earning a pretty packet for themselves).

SAB made themselves the worst of the bunch for taking it this far, but I remember there were others who refused to Laugh it Off, and threatened legal action. So, for the record, here are the 12 humour-challenged companies I could find who threatened legal action. I’m sure there were more 🙂

1. SAB. Carling Black Label slogan changed to Black Labour: White Guilt and America’s lusty, lively beer changed to Africa’s lusty, lively exploitation since 1652. See the picture here.
2. Nestlé. Husky (yes, Nestle own Husky too, you’ll be surprised what they don’t own) changed to Horny, and the picture to two dogs fucking. Viagra goes to great pains to say that their healthy product lets men have sex, you’d think Husky would be happy at the association of their crummy dogfood with two virile dogs copulating.
3. Coke. From Coca Cola, You can’t beat the feeling to Corruption. You can’t beat the stealing. You think they’d be more concerned with the contents of their drink.
4. Standard Bank became Standard Wank, with their flagpole and flag logo becoming a penis with a hand clutched around it. They got the police to raid a store selling the shirts, but were too late – the shirt’s were all sold out.
5. Mr Min (the character’s face was changed to George Bush, and the slogan to Mr Sin. Super Mean Super Power. Wipes out World Peace. A further stamp read: Pentagon. Helps polish off Foreign Countries. I could see how they would be seriously aggrieved by the comparison, but to sue?
6. Joshua Doore. From you have an uncle in the furniture business to Joshua’s Whore. You have a sister in the dirty business.
7. Pfizer (Viagra). Changed the Virgin Atlantic logo to Viagra. Hard Times never felt so good. Pfizer threatened to sue, Virgin just laughed. Richard Branson clearly knows something about branding!
8. Diesel. From Diesel – for successful living to Dieselfde – Denial For Successful Loafing (Dieselfde means the same. Strong stuff that – a serious threat).
9. Lego. Changed to Legover, and a pic of Lego characters getting intimate.
10. Black Like Me. Became Blacks Like Me.
11. Red Bull. From Red Bull gives you wings to Dead Bull gives you Mince.
12. Incredible Connection became Incredible Erection. This t-shirt wasn’t even produced by Laugh it Off, but the company threatened to sue anyway.

Naomi Klein, author of No Logo, in 2003 called this potentially bigger than the McLibel case, the famous battle between two people who distributed anti-McDonalds advertising, and McDonalds. The UK court ruled that McDonalds did exploit children, produced misleading advertising, paid their workers poorly and were responsible for cruelty to animals, as they were accused, but that the two had to pay £60 000 in damages as they couldn’t prove all of the claims they’d made. They refused, and McDonalds finally backed down, not wanting to risk more damage to their good ( 🙂 ) name.

So, with the Constitutional Court ruling it’s a tremendous day for freedom of expression in South Africa. Congrats to Laugh it Off’s Justin Nurse for sticking to his guns, and winning this one for all of us.

On the same day though, the Mail and Guardian was gagged because Imvume’s (the oil company that supposedly donated R11-million to the ANC, after their Swiss sister company was paid R15 million by state-owned PetroSA) dignity was to be impaired by an article about them. As Judge Vas Soni found, Imvume (the oil company that supposedly donated R11-million to the ANC, after their Swiss sister company was paid R15 million by state-owned PetroSA)’s constitutional right to privacy and the dignity of the company would be irreversibly damaged, and that the newspaper should have given Imvume more time to respond to the contents of the article. After the excitement of the Laugh it Off part of this post, I’ll leave looking at this ruling till later.