As a unabashed meat lover who thinks PETA is a bunch of nutjobs, I couldn’t help but be tickled by their new Thanksgiving themed promotion, a flash game called Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals. Then again, maybe it’s because I don’t like turkey, anyway. Either way, this promotion is one of their least offensive to me- which is surprising, since it’s all about murdering turkeys.
Both a parody and a protest of Majesco Sales’s popular Cooking Mama video game series (which they say relies too much on animal-based recipes), your job is to help Mama slaughter the poor, defenseless turkey, cut its head off, remove its internal organs and stuff its arse with stuffing, etc. Who knew murdering animals for food could be so much fun? Of course, that’s not what they’re trying to say- they’re trying to point out how much turkeys suffer during Thanksgiving. If you do well, maybe Mama will have a change of heart and make a tofu turkey this Thanksgiving instead.
I’m not trying to spread PETA’s message- just trying to show off a silly and fun Flash game for the Thanksgiving holiday. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone- whether or not you’re going to kill a turkey for it.
(WARNING: game contains semi-comedic animated blood and violence and pro-vegetarian messages. Play at your own risk.)
Anti-abortion groups should make a similar style game. You could choose from a whole variety of methods. Partial birth, vacuum, coat hanger, etc. Of course, the only way to win the game is to give birth to the kid, with extra points if there are severe health risks to the mother and if the child was the result of rape/incest.
I was playing this with someone watching and we were laughing at how insane it was when we hit the “bonus level” where step one was making mashed tofu for the dinner. I said, “Potatoes aren’t animals you idiots!”
My friend helpfully pointed out, “They have eyes.”
That’s copyright; this is trademark. They’re using a trademarked name, in a trademarked logo, with trademarked characters. There’s no protection for that.
Their Super Chick Sisters infringes on the trademarks of both Nintendo and KFC, but no legal action has been taken as of yet. And if there’s no protection against trademark parody, how come shows like Family Guy and Robot Chicken are able to get away with it? Not to mention some of PETA’s other campaigns, Wacky Packages (which PETA used as a basis of a campaign protesting using animals to test cigarettes), etc.
Neither is tofu, for that matter. Mama had a change of heart and is making a tofurkey instead.
Not that I’m a lawyer or anything, but looking at these factors related to this, in my opinion:
The purpose of the use is to criticize the original work for depicting recipes that involve animals. In addition, the use is by a non-profit organization.
The copyrighted work is a game. As such, it makes sense that the parody is also a game.
The phrase “Cooking Mama,” the Cooking Mama character herself, the Majesco brand name (albeit covered in blood as an apparent criticism), and the general feel of the Cooking Mama game is used in the parody.
The parody probably would not harm the potential market value of the original work- if anything, it may make people who haven’t heard of it be interested in it.
To me, at least, the fact that a large portion of the original work is used for parody purposes is overshadowed by the fact that the parody is meant as a direct criticism of the original work that would not harm the sales of the original- although I’m sure others would disagree with me.
I’d argue that the purpose of the use is to gross people out and convince them to sign a vegan pledge, and the use of this particular artwork was to further *that *end by using a popular (and controversial) game to draw attention to their cause; the purpose is not primarily literary criticism.
But I’m not a lawyer, either. I’d just like to see someone waste PETA’s time and money the way they make others do.
Well, people pay me for my TM opinions, so in light of the fact that I’m not getting paid here, I’ll keep it brief.
Basically it’s about 10 times more complicated than you can glean from just reading a statute. There are a lot of factors to consider, many of which require some seaching of TM databases, which is time consuming so I’m not going to do it.
It’s very hard to massage a parody defence to infringement of trademarks. Ask any TM lawyer.
They’re using exact copies of the TM(s) (That’s a BIG BAD THING because it increases the likelihood of confusion).
You’ve got other issues here too - tarnishment, for one.
If I was retained by Cooking Momma, I’d be kicking peta around the schoolyard in no time.
I’m still curious as to why my cracked eggs were bleeding. WAG, but maybe PETA members hate meat consumption because they don’t get fresh ingredients?
Regardless, now I am really jonesing for a turkey dinner.
For those who have a mental catalog of Far Side cartoons, or a reference book handy (web links to online scans of them being quickly hunted down and eliminated), this one comes to mind:
In sudden disgust, the three lionesses realized they had killed a tofudebeest – one of the Serengeti’s obnoxious health antelopes.
My impression was she made tofu “mashed potatoes” because she couldn’t bear harming them along with a tofu-rkey (a crime punishable by death in seventy-one countries and eight states).
