A sign of disbelief

A Tauranga church has been warned by DB Breweries that their religious-slogan billboards that mimic those of the brewery’s Tui brand are infringing on the brewery's copyright. The billboards feature a statement on a black box on the left side, and “Yeah, right.” on the right side. The main difference between the two signs is that the church replaced the Tui logo with its own.

The church’s preacher said that replacing the Tui logo meant it wasn’t the same and didn’t infringe on DB Breweries or its Tui brand. Apparently, he is unaware that look and feel is part of what a logo is and can be trademarked.

Still, he offered to go on national TV to apologise—because nothing says “I’m really, truly sorry” quite like gaining national exposure for a church most New Zealanders would otherwise never hear of. What, exactly, was DB supposed to get out of that?

Proving adept at making jokes, the preacher went on, "I think it shows the church has a sense of humour but when it comes to breweries, they just care about making money." Because no one would ever think a church was just “about making money” like, for example, by offering to go on national TV to “apologise” while gaining marketing exposure. Incidentally, since DB came up with the campaign in the first place, it kind of proves that they have a sense of humour. More importantly, they also have the law on their side.

It seems pretty obvious that the preacher is trying to spin this for his own advantage. He claimed that DB called only after the church posted a sign saying, “Atheists have nothing to worry about! Yeah Right.” The preacher was trying to imply it was that particular sign at issue. However, it’s documented that DB said in 2004 that the church’s signs were copyright infringement.

Still, if this sign did, in fact, prove to be a sort of last straw, it would be deserved: It’s one thing to promote one’s own religious beliefs (as in "Jesus was just a man. Yeah Right."), and something completely different—and completely wrong—to denigrate other people’s beliefs on religion. The church’s sign was the moral equivalent of saying “Jews have nothing to worry about” or Muslims or Catholics. You could say they took the joke too far.

Personally, I find the preacher’s claims of innocence to be laughable. If it wasn’t for the Tui billboard campaign, the church would never have thought of doing them, and they wouldn’t have been effective—the church depended on DB establishing the image for it to resonate. They simply had to know they were copying a corporate marketing campaign and one day they could be held to account.

Will the preacher admit the church was wrong? Will they understand that their latest sign went a bit too far? Yeah, right.