*cough* Rip-off *cough*

Posted by: ilanasmith | August 16, 2006

cough Rip-off cough

I was reading BoingBoing today. As you do. They had a post about a new Barcardi ad that rips-off an annual Cacophony Society prank. (The Cacophony Society was the inspiration for Project Mayhem; Chuck Palahniuk is a member.)

It’s all very sad and corporate and bad and naughty, but only of interest because it reminds me to complain about being recently ripped off ourselves.

MSTT, I humbly submit, does some kick-ass advertising. Our posters are pretty, our t-shirts rock. When we did "The Mousetrap" last year, Roy Arauz developed a gorgeous poster that made even a ho-hum murder mystery seem interesting, and Kb came up with a delightfully intriguing tag-line: "Eight guilty consciences. One homocidal maniac." Our effort is the blue one to the left below (you can click to biggerise them).

So a few weeks ago, I’m in the Starbucks in downtown Bellevue and I’m checking out the noticeboard. (Insert my obligatory joke about the sign for the Bellevue Linux User’s Group and how I think that’s like building a mosque in the Vatican.) I notice a poster for Attic Theater’s production of Mousetrap. And parts of it seem eerily familiar.

Don’t get me started about ellipses-abuse and spoiling the beats of the line or anything. But seriously, if you’re going to rip off another theatre, why would it be one in the same town? Lame, meet Stupid. You two will get along well.