This entry was posted on
Friday, June 22nd, 2007 at
9:44 am and is filed
under Photoshopping.
Two days later and not so much as a courtesy reply from Emap, despite their organisation making 28 visits to my report on their image-nickery.
Time to chase, I think.
While you wait, have a peek at this:
Billboard – U.K. Industry Trust Unveils ‘Knock-Off’ Ad Campaign: The U.K. entertainment industry is adopting a bold, and sometimes humorous, campaign to deter would-be pirates. As part of a multi-million pound, cross-media initiative, the Industry Trust for IP Awareness will hope to transform consumer attitudes by attaching a social stigma to copyright theft. The message will be passed down through a fictional character, “Knock-off Nigel”, a “shabby” pub-going rogue who buys “knock-off” DVDs, illegally downloads music and entertainment content, and generally grabs what he can for free. From June 1, the £3 million ($5.94 million) campaign, described as the most expensive anti-piracy project of its kind in Britain, will go wide across the country’s media and even into pubs, where slogans will feature on beer coasters.
I’m sure you remember the Industry Trust for IP Awareness … they’re the people who have been busy telling us that DVD piracy funds terrorism.
You can see the early fruits of their Nigel-related labours here.
When you’re done with that, pop over to this MySpace profile and check out the work of the Lancashire Hotpots, (where we are promised “twenty first century folk for twenty first century folk”).
The Lancashire Hotpots (who include Friend of Bloggerheads Sheldon in their line-up) have been enjoying a bit of attention lately, mostly up north (i.e. where the Industry Trust for IP Awareness are focusing the bulk of their energies).
Now, there’s some differences in costume and accent, so this little rip-off isn’t quite as blatant as this one, but surely it would pay to think twice about being even a little bit cheeky about this kind of thing when it’s a campaign for copyright protection and the key purpose is to win hearts and minds.
[Psst! More from the Lancashire Hotpots can be found on YouTube.]
