Laugh it Off starts second round of its battle against South African Breweries (SABMiller) today at the Supreme Court of Appeals in Bloemfontein.

Great news is that the FXI’s Simon Kimani has enlisted the legal savvy of Advocate Gilbert Marcus to argue the case that Laugh it Off’s constitutional right to freedom of speech is being obstructed by SAB’s claims of trademark and copyright infringement of its Black Label brand.

Tom Forsythe, who gained fame for being taken to court in 1999 after he used the famous Barbie doll to create a series of photographs called “Food-chain Barbie” urged LIO to ‘fight, fight, fight’ against ‘brand bullies’ like SABMiller. Forsythe won his case against Marttel when he told the court that he had decided on the series of pictures “to critique the objectification of women associated with Barbie and to lambast the conventional beauty myth and the social acceptance of women as objects because this is what Barbie embodies”.

“Our world is increasingly defined by brands,” said Forsythe. “If we hope to effectively comment on our world, we must be able to critique the brands that define that world. Humour hits home, so it’s very dangerous to the bean counters of the world.

“I hope the decision in my case will help the Supreme Court of Appeal see the important cultural benefit of allowing … citizens to critique the culture’s brand makers.”

Go here for more or click back later for more news as the case progresses.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 30th, 2004 at 4:35 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.