ISSUE 30: ARE IDEAS FREE?
Still thinking about sweetgreen's merch theft & if any ideas are original now.
Hello readers and welcome toooooooo another week of this. This first section begins in the year 2024 where I started writing this issue and then my laptop died. Then I forgot about this issue. And now, I’m back here because it’s still a juicy topic in my opinion.
*~~*~~*~ YOU ARE NOW BEING TRANSPORTED TO DECEMBER 2024 ~*~~*~~*
CREATIVITY VERSUS TIMING
Currently, I am sitting outside at a shopping center where there is a “markers market.” I strolled around and came across a woman who makes gemstone charms for dog collars. Yes, that’s right: you can get a tiger’s eye, lapis lazuli, moonstone, etc, CHARM for your dog’s collar. Because your dog is a woo woo bitch! And so are you.
They also make human jewelry and honestly I would’ve bought some for myself because it was so fun and I loved the necklace the owner was wearing. But I am currently buying Christmas gifts for OTHER people right now and you know… I’m selfless like that.
I came here to work on my one-woman show which—as anyone working on something important knows—is impossible to work on.
I currently technically have a full show… 60 pages! But since I’ve been marinating with this script for so long, I’ve thought of new ideas I’ve deemed more interesting and now I have to throw away half my script and edit the remaining half. And then….I’m confident we will get back to 60.
I am someone who does my best creative work first thing in the morning. And by first thing, I mean…pretty much right when I am eating breakfast, have not turned my phone on, and have not spoken to anyone.
There are surely theories about how you’re closer to a “dream state” when you wake up, so you’re able to channel your best ideas down—you know, before you look at your phone and find out a world leader is being overthrown or you have a surprise at work waiting to absolutely derail your day from dreamland to triangle shirtwaist factory.
————- Oh my god, a weenie dog just ran by. ——————
Do I have ADHD?
Anyway - My work life has been busy, and so I don’t have a chance in the morning to wake up like a groggy artist and have my next great ideas (most of my great ideas, arguably, have been thought of in this dreamlike state).
By the time I get to now, which is 4:34pm on a Saturday….. I’m like ALL RIGHT BRAIN. ALL RIGHT CREATIVE MUSES. I’M AVAILABLE NOW!
And they’re like … girl, we are watching Severance. Ring us tomorrow around 7:30am.
I’m constantly struggling between needing to “get it done no matter the circumstances” and truly feeling like I can only be creatively productive within a certain window.
For someone trying to be a professional entertainment person in some capacity, it’s not gonna fly if you’re like ummm Mr. Judd Apatow? I can only co-write the script with you if we start 30 min after I wake up.
In this instance, we are neighbors. It’s the only way to get anything done.
*~~*YOU ARE NOW BEING TRANSPORTED BACK TO PRESENT DAY *~~*
SON OF A PITCH
Last year, I was ab-so-lute-ly captivated to hear that salad purveyor sweetgreen had allegedly STOLEN an idea from MARKET, an LA-based streetwear brand. Market details in the Instagram post above that they pitched sweetgreen the idea of “kale camo” sweatsuits (using the silhouettes of arugula and kale to replicate a camouflage pattern.) In fact, they were in direct contact with one of the sweetgreen founders who asked to set up a call. After they presented the idea, they said they never heard back and then sweetgreen later debuted their exact idea:
Now, normally I’d say “well that’s just a coincidence—someone had the same idea as you, oh well.” This kind of thing can happen where multiple people have the same idea seemingly at one, for whatever reason.
But in THIS case, Market claims they literally presented this idea to the sweetgreen team (obviously in hopes to work with them on it) and then sweetgreen turned around and just did it themselves.
Now… here’s the thing.
Was sweetgreen obligated to work with Market? No.
Did Market take a risk pitching this to sweetgreen? Yes.
The crux of it all was a group of creatives saying “hey, we just had an awesome idea FOR YOU, and the implication is that you will pay us to work with you on executing this.”
Some of you may think…well, maybe that’s a little bold and presumptuous!
However, pitching an idea to get work isn’t a new thing in the creative industries. Ad agencies sometimes do this to prospective clients. And ultimately, you do take the risk of someone stealing your idea because technically, there’s no guarantee they won’t—other than good faith and any remaining hope in humanity we have left.
I’ve definitely had ideas for companies that I’ve lightly pitched or tried to pitch via social media. And as a creative, you do take a risk. However any creative with a sliver of confidence to do that knows the payoff could be huge, so sometimes it’s a risk you’re willing to take.
Either way, both companies got massive PR for this. So who cares? *Sips martini*
INFLUENCING TOO CLOSE TO THE SUN
Did anyone else read about the influencer who sued another influencer for supposedly stealing her “vibe?” Specifically her “neutral, beige and cream aesthetic.”
Taylor Lorenz at
lays it out in her issue below.
When social media first became “a thing,” it felt like everyone sort of had this understanding that everything was free game. Like running with wild chickens in the lush forest under the moonlight. Not that people were openly stealing each other’s work, but you know what I mean.
Now, people have created their entire careers on these platforms (cue TikTok influencers freaking out about the impending TikTok ban last week), so suing someone for copying you doesn’t seem that absurd if I really consider it.
However, similar to the sweetgreen x Markt collab that never was, you take a risk any time you put yourself out there.
One of my friends, a popular writer known for her dating and relationship-related tweets (OK, IT’S
) has dealt with other influencers reading her viral tweets in their videos (without crediting her) or simply retyping her tweets as their own. Her loyal followers always rise up in the comments to defend her work, but it’s been something we’ve discussed together time after time. Do we copyright everything we’ve ever written? Do we just say fuck it and let people be horrible? After all, sharing ideas and content on social media is how a lot of people (and up and coming influencers) end up scoring brand deals and making da big buxxxx. Wild chickens in the moonlit forest money.As silly as the beige influencer case may seem above, a vibe or aesthetic are potentially intellectual property as much as words are…it’s just a little bit more ambiguous.
Side note — Did anyone else have to upload all their high school papers to “Turn It In .com” which would scan your paper and let you know if you plagiarized the internet?” Now kids are using ChatGPT to write papers and destroying the Earth…as us Millennials say..”smh”
Even the mighty among us can get intertwined in an intellectual property spat:
If you go on to read the second paragraph…it’s giving … “say what now?”
Beyoncé has been accused of copyright infringement in a new lawsuit targeting her US No 1 hit song Break My Soul.
The song samples Explode by Big Freedia, a New Orleans vocalist who performs bounce, a subgenre of insistent high-tempo dance music. Another bounce group, Da Showstoppaz, are alleging that Big Freedia’s Explode infringed the copyright of their 2002 track Release a Wiggle. Explode slightly alters the title phrase to “release your wiggle” in its repeated chorus, and that phrase was part of the track sampled by Beyoncé.
So you’re saying someone infringed on someone else’s infringement?
At least they all got PR. *sips martini again*
There’s some bad stuff going on right now in the U.S. I hope everyone is taking care.
Drop a comment below and let’s talk about other stuff! Or let’s hang out on Substack chat?? Meet e there?
Remember to subscribe to me here as I phase off Meta platforms :) :) :) Cuz shit got really weird this week.
xoxo
LJ