Hasta La Ideas

Years and years ago, as a gag, some friend of this writer’s signed us up for the borrowing from popular films or other pop-culture offerings of the day. If Avatar turns out to be a phenomenon, you bet there’s going to be some new booklet published by ATS with the films’ logo slightly altered and a message about personal salvation thrown in there somewhere. What we’ve always found interesting is that we’re 90% sure none of this is in any way authorized, despite the giant, full-color photos and other direct links to the original cultural product. We’re ready to move that estimate up to “100% sure” after reading Jay Reeves‘ AP story about the giant, multi-billion dollar industry surrounding these Christian pop-culture knock-offs. You’ve likely seen these either out in public or online, essentially the same thing as what ATS is doing, just with t-shirts, stickers, and anything else that can be de-secularized, but retain a familiar design (e.g., Guitar Hero becomes God Is My Hero, Apple’s iPod becomes iPray, etc.). But in a world as litigious as it is, how do these knock-offs survive? Simple:

Many such goods are illegal, trademark attorneys say, but companies often are unaware their names are being copied or don’t put up a fight for fear of being labeled anti-faith.

Fortunately in the story, there are a few companies, like Coca-Cola, who have stood up for themselves in protecting their trademarks. And a handful of Christian groups have labeled them “Jesus Junk” and find the whole thing tacky, so there’s some hope there.

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