“Boys Are Stupid” Products Designer Caught in Plagiarism Scandal (Part II)
May 9th, 2007 by Glenn Sacks, MA for Fathers & Families
Background: We launched a successful campaign against “Boys are Stupid” children's products back in 2003-2004. Our protest against the products--which were designed and created by Todd Goldman and his company David & Goliath--gained international media attention and drove the products out of 3,500 stores, 95% of their worldwide distribution.
Recently I have been contacted by numerous artists, cartoonists, comic strip artists, and others concerning a scandal over Todd Goldman's alleged plagiarism. Goldman is accused of stealing artwork from other artists--to see the allegedly plagiarized designs and to learn more, click here.
The St. Petersburg Times has a new article out about the Todd Goldman plagiarism scandal:
By S.I. Rosenbaum
May 8, 2007
Todd Goldman has admitted copying the work of a cartoonist named David Kelly. He and Kelly have reached a settlement, according to Goldman's press agency. But on the Internet, the public shaming continues.
CLEARWATER - It was a kitty. Or maybe a squirrel. Either way, it was cute, and it was kneeling at a cute little bed, with a cute thought balloon over its head that said "Dear God, please make everyone die."
The image was pure Todd Goldman - the kind of ironic design that built his T-shirt company into a $90-million media business.
There was only one problem: Goldman didn't draw it.
He copied it, with a few small changes, from the work of a cartoonist named David Kelly.
In March, Goldman sold two oil paintings of the cat/squirrel for about $5, 000 each. In April, when Kelly found out about the paintings, he denounced Goldman as an art thief on a Web site.
What followed was an superheated Internet explosion.
Hundreds of angry artists and designers tore into Goldman's work, calling him a fake and a hack.
"Man, I can't wait for him to be brought down, " one blogger wrote.
Another publicly fantasized about "violently shoving this guy's pencils under all his fingernails."
Goldman, 38, has admitted copying Kelly's work, which he said was a mistake.
He and Kelly have reached a settlement, according to Goldman's press agency. But on the Internet, the public shaming continues.
Jim Benton, a fellow T-shirt designer, said Goldman's fans bought into his image as a creative, original artist.
"If you're in the business of 'clever, ' there's sort of a promise, a covenant: 'I promise to be clever, and you promise to love me and my cleverness, '" explained Benton.
By copying another person's art, Goldman betrayed that trust, Benton said. "It's like if you find out a rock star is lip synching."
Goldman declined to be interviewed for this story, first dismissing the controversy as "false accusations and blogging, " then hanging up the phone on a reporter.
But he was happy to give an interview to the St. Petersburg Times in 2004.
"I just keep coming up with ideas and ideas, " he said then.
A University of Florida graduate, Goldman started his T-shirt company, David & Goliath, in 2000 with a $250,000 loan from his father.
His first success was a series of shirts with crudely drawn figures and snarky captions: "Boys are smelly, " "Boys have cooties, " "Boys are stupid, throw rocks at them."
The designs got him noticed, and soon the shirts were selling at Bloomingdale's and Urban Outfitters.
Not everyone liked them. In 2004, a radio commentator named Glenn Sacks attacked
Goldman for his "antiboy" shirts. Some stores stopped carrying them.
Goldman shrugged it off. His line had already expanded.
He added a series of shirts featuring "Goodbye Kitty, " an ill-fated cartoon cat. Then came "Eve L." the sinister goth girl, "Meatball" the fat guy, and dozens more.
Retailers couldn't get enough.
"Todd stood out as an innovative thinker, " Brandweek editor Karen Benezra told the Times in 2004, the year her magazine named Goldman one of its 10 Marketers of the Next Generation.
Read the full article here.
"));
17 queries. 0.481 seconds.