After both WGSN and Vogue.com reported on the fact that woody allen is sueing T shirt retailer American Apparel for using his image in advertising withough his permission I had to see the pictures.
The fashion basics superstore put up a billboard on New Yorks lower side ( a dodgy bit I think!) in May 2007 and somewhere in California aswell, featuring a massive image from Annie Hall of Allen dressed as a Hasid. Beside the picture, written in Yiddish, are the words, “der heyliker rebe”.Apparently it means something like “the holy rebbe” ‘our spiritual leader’ and when questioned Alex Spunt of American Apparel explained: “Woody Allen is our spiritual leader.”
The relevance of the ads is somewhat ambigious, although founder Dov Charney is Jewish.
However, Woody Allen filed a lawsuit last week against the stores seeking more than $10m as the use of his image was completely unauthorised!
"Allen was unaware that AAI was going to utilise his image on its billboard and website," the lawsuit said. "Allen was not contacted, nor did he in any way give his consent to the use of his image and likeness, and he was not in any way compensated for the same, either prior to the infringement or thereafter."
The complaint said the unlawful use of Allen's image for commercial advertising was "especially egregious and damaging because Allen does not commercially endorse any products in the United States of America".
It may just be me but I thought a huge company like American Apparel would check if they could use an image before using it in a campaign!!!
The fashion basics superstore put up a billboard on New Yorks lower side ( a dodgy bit I think!) in May 2007 and somewhere in California aswell, featuring a massive image from Annie Hall of Allen dressed as a Hasid. Beside the picture, written in Yiddish, are the words, “der heyliker rebe”.Apparently it means something like “the holy rebbe” ‘our spiritual leader’ and when questioned Alex Spunt of American Apparel explained: “Woody Allen is our spiritual leader.”
The relevance of the ads is somewhat ambigious, although founder Dov Charney is Jewish.
However, Woody Allen filed a lawsuit last week against the stores seeking more than $10m as the use of his image was completely unauthorised!
"Allen was unaware that AAI was going to utilise his image on its billboard and website," the lawsuit said. "Allen was not contacted, nor did he in any way give his consent to the use of his image and likeness, and he was not in any way compensated for the same, either prior to the infringement or thereafter."
The complaint said the unlawful use of Allen's image for commercial advertising was "especially egregious and damaging because Allen does not commercially endorse any products in the United States of America".
It may just be me but I thought a huge company like American Apparel would check if they could use an image before using it in a campaign!!!
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