Painter more like Pinto!
Because I have blessedly been without cable for many years now (and still drive a dinged, 11-year-old beater), I have somewhat forgotten about the stain on humanity that is the car dealership. Local dealers tend to have the annoying, frequent radio jingles and chintzy TV ads. Not that the corporate, Dennis Leary-narrated “rah rah Ford trucks are for MEN!” type ads are any better. Or anytime there’s a fucking luxury vehicle with a giant red bow sitting in a snowy driveway.
I’ve also forgotten how linked cars are to patriotism, relevant for the upcoming Fourth of July/Brexit. Jeep has a “Wrangler Unlimited Freedom Edition.” There’s a Texas dealership called “Freedom Chevrolet” despite Chevy’s parent company being based in the UK and the original Chevrolet having been started by a Swiss-born Frenchman.
And Ford has a “Freedom Sales Event,” which I imagine is like The Purge, but for freedom. You’re allowed to have freedom for one weekend per year, but only to buy a crappy car.
Quirk Ford of Quincy, Massachusetts decided to advertise this event by stealing art off the Firewatch website.
😒 Ahh, remember when Henry and Delilah were excited about the Ford Freedom Sales Event? #ripoffexpress @camposanto pic.twitter.com/kF5wZnH1ZT
— Panic Inc (@panic) June 27, 2016
Campo Santo co-founder Sean Vanaman joked about the unauthorized use on Twitter, but noted, “olly and his contemporaries get yoinked 100x a day.” Everyone expects everything for free online and people get ripped off without attribution, let alone payment, always. Heck, there have been a number of weird, unexplainable websites over the years that copy-paste Destructoid articles, headline and all, and present it as their own writing.
Here’s Vanaman last year noting someone selling Moss’ work as their own “2D take on Mt. Fuji.”
no it is not.#ripoffexpress#freshestidea pic.twitter.com/1lciHOj8Tg
— Sean Vanaman (@vanaman) May 1, 2015
Game Informer reached out to the local dealership and, “Before hanging up on us, [Sean Western in the advertising department] admitted that the group has no copyright vetting or clearance process. I forwarded him both the ad image, which he admitted his company sent to a large number of potential customers in the area.”
Western followed up by email and said the artwork was taken from some random wallpapers website, but Vanaman says the dealership’s statement, “is bs as their mailer actually includes elements from our old website that aren’t available on any wallpaper site.”
Ford Dealership Steals Firewatch Art To Promote Sale [Game Informer]
