Britney Spears’ New Product Stealing from mondonation and Charities
11:32 am in Entrepreneur News by Darius Monsef
Britney Spears’s new fragrance, Britney Spears Believe will be out on counters in October, but is available for Pre-order online. The brand for this new fragrance is a complete rip of mondonation‘s brand…
Somewhere there is a design team who should be fired.
Last year I stumbled across a very interesting company coming out of Vancouver, Canada. mondonation had a simple, clever and meaningful idea that allowed people to customize a personal mantra onto a t-shirt. A statement of something they believed in… Some were heartfelt messages “I believe everyday people can make a difference every day” and some that are just fun or silly “I believe the hokey pokey is what it’s all about.”
The kicker about mondonation is that it was set-up to support lots of international charities, by donating part of the profits from each shirt sale. I had a chance to speak to Ward Bingham the founder of the company last year about what they were doing and how my disaster relief agency, www.HODR.org could find support from what he was doing. We since have joined up as a partner charity and I’ve been a huge fan and supporter of the project ever since.
mondonation has reached thousands of people with their “I believe�? t-shirts. All you have to do is watch some of the YouTube videos to get an idea of how many people they’ve reached. This one video has been viewed almost 700,000 times.
Damaging a Wonderful & Positive Brand
mondonation created a powerful message and opportunity with their i believe t-shirts and thousands of people have purchased their shirts and supported the many charities working with them. I am one of those people. I personally own a few shirts and have referred my friends and family to buy them too… but I don’t think I want to become a walking billboard for Britney Spears new product… and if something isn’t done about her fragrance logo… that is exactly what my shirts will become.
Elizabeth Arden the company behind this new fragrance should be ashamed of themselves for putting out a blatant copy of another companies logo and for potentially damaging the wonderful brand mondonation has built around the i believe design. They should be coughing up some serious cash for this blunder, but the sad part about this, is that even paying a settlement doesn’t repair damage to the brand. I hope they pull the fragrance ASAP, compensate mondonation and the i believe shirts can continue on being a supportive and successful project.
Tell Elizabeth Arden to Shut Believe Perfume Down
Use their web form, or any of the contact information below to let Elizabeth Arden know that they stole the work of another company and are potentially damaging this other companies brand.
Elizabeth Arden Consumer Affairs
309 South Street
New Providence, NJ 07974
Phone: (800) 326-7337
E-mail: consumer@elizabetharden.com
*Send a copy of your emails to Ward Bingham (ward@mondonation.com) at mondonation to let him know he has your support.
mondonation Quick Facts:
mondonation’s business model and positive campaign which gives proceeds from each shirt sale to charities launched six months prior to the product red campaign.
mondonation became an incorporated company April 12, 2005
mondonation logo and “believe�? logo designed by jeff Harrison, july 2005.
mondonation website launched march 21, 2006 – designed by burnkit and fuse interactive
First shirt sale November 2005
Over 10,000 shirts have been sold and exist in over 100 countries worldwide.
Belief Disclosure: The author of this post believes in fresh powder.
Here’s some leads to the trademarks:
http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/gate.exe?f=doc&state=498j91.6.6
Don’t have time to look through all the results from the Trademark office.
i cant believe this
mondonation is well known..
why would you rip off a company that DONATES the money to charities and needy children around the world?
just shows you how terrible brittney really is.
and btw people.. it ISNT just the colours
its the logo!
just because darius decided to put the pink and green logo doesnt mean anything. its still plagerized from the origional creators of mondonation.
the word believe with the highlighted i was mondonations logo long before britney deicided to plagerize it.
I BELIEVE that shows that mondonation had it way before she “came up with it”
…and for all of you who say, “who cares”
im sure if you were a child in africa who had aids.. or a child with cancer.. or have a child with cancer.. you’d be signing a totally different tune right now.
and for those of you who just dont care
DONT WRITE ANYTHING.
Tyranus, how long have you worked for or been affiliated with EA?
Darius obviously did not do his homework. Clicking on the first link takes one exactly where Jane says it will.
I think that the whole copying of mondonation’s logo is discusting! And to anyone that said ” Mondonation might be working with EA on any sort of collaborative promotion”, I’ll copy you all the email that came from mondonation officials regarding this incident, the email also linked to this site:
“A Message to Our Friends and Supporters
Recently, it was brought to our attention that Elizabeth Arden is launching a new fragrance named “believe” under the Britney Spears brand. We are shocked and dismayed that the logo that Elizabeth Arden has chosen copies mondonation’s “believe” logo which mondonation has been using since May, 2005. We understand that the similarity of the two logos and their colors are causing a great deal of confusion, but wish to assure you that mondonation has no association with Britney Spears and does not wish to have any association with her given that her lifestyle is so contrary to what we and you believe.
We are grateful for the numerous emails that we have received in support of mondonation and hope that you will continue to send us your comments. Please see the article “Britney Spears New Product Stealing from mondonation and Charities” (Articule URL edited because it was too long) and follow the link to Elizabeth Arden to let them know what you believe and how it will affect you to wear your “believe” t-shirt once this new product is launched. Please copy me on any emails you send to Elizabeth Arden.
We hope that we can reach an amicable resolution with Elizabeth Arden to avoid serious harm to mondonation and its charitable purpose.
In the meantime, thank you for your understanding and for “believing”.
Ward Bingham”
And under the credits, recognition should be given to Morgan Dunnet (www.morgandunnet.com) for the YouTube video.
The same thing happened to Glow cosmetics when Glow by J.Lo (Jennifer Lopez) launched her fragrance. They settled out of court, but not before it was written up all over the place, like Inc. magazine. I think it was 2006.
@ typophile
“(By the way, Mondonation looks like a wonderful “experimentâ€?. and besides…I want that shirt! But, I do know I can get it free with the purchase of some fragrance by slapping down 58 bucks at http://www.britneyspearsbelieve.com …hey, you never know…could be a collector’s item!)”
So…you’d rather pay $58 to a huge corporation that uses Britney Spears (a pathetic washup) as their advertisement for perfume and get the shirt that you say you want for free instead of DONATING MONEY TO A CHARITABLE CAUSE (you don’t even have to give $58 to get the shirt) and getting the shirt with, not only the logo that was ripped off by EA, but also a personal touch of what you believe in on the back??? Think about how stupid you sound…
@ Angie
I think you missed the point…
I was clearly calling out (poking a little fun at) Mondonation for not having available, in the color combination of pink and green
logo on a basic white t-shirt. The same shirt featured on Mondonation’s home page and the same logo color combination
featured in the Darius blog that we’re all commenting on!
One more thing Ange… I’m in disbelief and, quite frankly ashamed at all you so called “charitable” people who go out of your way
to trash Britney Spears like it’s a sport. She has achieved a certain amount of success in her lifetime and has also suffered
painful missteps and bad decisions. Hey, here’s an idea… try showing Britney the same kindness and support that you would to
any other human being… try being a better person by focusing on whatever good YOU can do rather than trashing an easy target !
Seriously… get a clue
I really cant understand the lack of creativity of big corporations… I wont tell the Mondonatio logo is bad, but its nothing great either… people copying average designs… really bad.
Well spotted. I just send an email to the company. It is despicable and ridiculous for a company with their resources to steal from anyone else, and I hope they endeavor to save at least a little of their integrity by pulling the product as-is and apologizing to mondonation and their customers.
Wow, what nerve! They didn’t even bother to hide the similarities a bit better. Actually aside from the “Believe” trademark rip off, it’s disturbing that Elizabeth Arden created this whole concept of Britney believing in herself! I mean the poor girl is clearly lacking in that department.
Hmmm…such nerve! They didn’t even try to hide their mimicry. While the trademark rip off is disturbing, I find is so strange why Elizabeth Arden chose Britney for a brand that says “Believe in yourself” (???) I mean the poor girl is clearly lacking in that department.
I think we ought to check out ALL of Ms. Spears’ fragrance logos, just to see which other ones EA ripped off! Oh, this is fun, taking a break from bashing the Bush/Cheney administration and taking some potshots at big business!
Hey, here’s an idea — how about you liberal dopes stop fighting the man and START getting jobs and making productive humans of yourselves?
Anyone who has a decent idea here is just trashed because it doesn’t fit the “liberal” profile?
You all are guilty of making a mountain out of a friggin’ molehole, and for that, here ya go …
/Users/scott/Desktop/douche.png
I BELEIVE BRITNEY HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS SO PEOPLE NEED TO STOP TRASH TALKING HER OHWELL ITS JUST A PERFUME ITS ALLREADY COMING OUT NOTHING WE CAN DO ABOUT IT IAM GONNA GO BUY ABOUT TEN BOTTLES OF IT TO GIVE AS GIFTS IT SMELLS NICE AND UNIQUE!!!!!!!!!!!!
A Message to Our Friends and Supporters
As many of you have learned through this blog entry, Elizabeth Arden is launching a new fragrance named “believe” under the Britney Spears brand using a logo virtually identical to mondonation’s “believe” logo with a lower case font, similar colors, and including mondonation’s distinctive highlighted “i”. Â
Thanks to the numerous emails you have sent, we have been contacted by Elizabeth Arden and its executives are working with us in good faith to find a reasonable resolution to avoid further confusion between the two logos, or perceived endorsement of the Britney Spears fragrance by mondonation.  Â
We hope that we can reach an amicable resolution with Elizabeth Arden to avoid serious harm to mondonation and its charitable purpose. With regard to Britney Spears, we wish her well and hope that someday she will find something positive in her life in which she can “believe”.
Thank you to everyone who has written to EA and supported mondonation through this unusual event. I will continue to post updates here or you can also check the mondonation blog for the most current developments.
Ward Bingham
Here is something more about this issue
http://www.logoblog.org/wordpress/britney-spears-believe-logo-copyrights-violation/
I’m reading this site for the first time and I have to say I am in awe of how relentless Tyranus is in promoting his tiresome arguments. Time and time again they have been disproved and yet he still continues to cling onto them like life jackets.
How many times does he need to be told that the i believe “logo” he found is actually the back of the shirt and not the front. If he has even once been to the site and tried to purchase a shirt, that fact would be glaringly obvious.
And from one graphic designer to…a non-designer…color combinations of the britney logo hardly calls for an accusation of plagiarism. britney spears is not the first company to use that combination. It is the color AND typeface arrangement that makes the logo a candidate for plagiarism. Not to mention the fact that they conveniently color the “I” in believe to stand out when it is irrelevant to their marketing scheme.
To a professional designer ALL aspects of a design have a specific PURPOSE to it. It’s the first thing they teach you in school.
maybe their team decided to change the color of the “i” just for the purpose of having 2 colors in their logo to match that of their previous campaigns BUT there are PLENTY of solutions to this design problem that don’t require them to highlight an “i” that has nothing to do with their campaign.
besides, we live in the 21st century. The world wide web is full of information easily accessible at our fingertips. Their design and/or legal team has the means to do some research on the logo of their brand before marketing it to avoid possible lawsuits. I thought that was common knowledge.
I think if her fragrance is called “believe” instead of ” “i believe”, then britney should be able to use it! They’re different brands, and if this fragrance symbolizes who britney is and she’s not copying from another brand, then it’s not a big deal to me! Besides it’s not like it’s the same scent, bottle, or even name! You know what I mean! I do hope it smells good though!
Cassie
Elizabeth Arden can dih it out but can’t take it…..
(Orlando Sentinel, The (FL) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Sep. 23–A popular Winter Springs yoga studio is changing its name to avoid an ugly legal battle with one of the United States’ best-known beauty companies.
Red Door Yoga owner Joni Giconi got a letter recently from an attorney for Elizabeth Arden, telling her to change the studio’s name.
Elizabeth Arden has a line of Red Door spas and fragrances.
“Your subsequent opening of a yoga salon and massage parlor in Florida using the trademark RED DOOR is likely to cause confusion with and dilute the distinctiveness of the valuable RED DOOR trademark,” attorney Joseph Dreitler said in a letter to Giconi.
Maybe they should write back withthe ‘believe” logo
Britney markets this name alot better than those other ppl which I never even HEARD of! GO BRITNEY & I *BELIEVE IN BRITNEY*
yes, britney does a great job of marketing herself, i agree.
there are probably very few people in the world who didn’t see her “memorable” performance on the music awards.
by the way, i just feel sorry for britney, she needs help.
i believe britney will make it through this embarrassing time in her life
The people of EA have changed the logo. It is exactly the same but now the i isnt pink anymore it is just green like the rest… still looks like the other logo to me
yes, we found this out early today.
what we really were concerned with was the isolation of the “i” in a separate colour.
i am actually very pleased with the change. it was never really about the typeface although it was a concern when it was paired with the isolated “i”
i am happy to say that elizabeth arden has really done a great job at resolving this issue.
there are many “believe” logos out there but at least mondonation was able to hold onto the one thing that made our logo unique.
it is a good day at camp mondonation.
To anyone who argued that the logo is just “similar” based on color, font, etc.:
Logo’s are visual representations of ideas and the idea is IDENTICAL hence the logos are identical for all intents and purposes. End of story
It’s no coincidence and the logos could not have coexisted, here’s why:
THE LOGO WASN’T THE ISSUE!
Allowing EA/BS to use the logo effectively KILLS mondonation, the project and the founder’s dream. How? It reduces (even enslaves) the company and all of it customer/supporters into living billboards for EA/BS against their will. Everyone who bought/donated will have wasted their money… it’s like EA/BS stole every t-shirt and hijacked the whole company/brand/message.
In fact, diametrically opposed to “coincidence”, I’m convinced it was INTENTIONAL:
The greatest trick in the “branding playbook” is not to create anything new but rather APPROPRIATE something that is already part of popular culture, is familiar to people, or has some momentum behind it. Think of how Budweiser had everybody saying “Waaazzap!” a few years ago, they just borrowed something people already said naturally and made it their own… no “theft” going on there but just to illustrate the branding mechanism.
Mondonation and its project has a lot of good will behind it, a lot of karmic equity so to speak and a lot of people already wearing the t-shirt. What better way for EA/BS to “buy” a few supporters and hit the ground running with tons of “brand recognition” without spending a dime?
I don’t know what I would do if I had bought the t-shirt and then EA/BS came along… I would probably stop wearing the t-shirt as much as I knew it hurts the cause. I certainly wouldn’t “buy a EA/BS t-shirt from mondonation” because that’s what it comes down to, really, once the EA/BS brand spreads.
I was really getting depressed till I visited Britney’s site and saw that the “i” was changed to the same color as the rest or “believe”. I think that preserves the uniqueness of mondonation’s mark.
Just wanted to add my $0.02 or should I donate it do mondonation now that the issue is resolved?
I don’t know who told you EA changed the logo but it simply isn’t true. I have a box of believe perfume right in front of me. The logo is green with a pink “i”.
Here are pics from ebay. The logo is clearly not changed.
http://cgi.ebay.com/BELIEVE-BRITNEY-SPEARS-3-4-FL-OZ-EDP-SPRAY-NEW-IN-BOX_W0QQitemZ140165559212QQihZ004QQcategoryZ101942QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-BELIEVE-BRITNEY-SPEARS-SOUFFLE-6-8_W0QQitemZ110179315224QQihZ001QQcategoryZ118690QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Hey, I would just like to say that I was flipping through my magazine this morning, and I saw an ad for Britney Spears’s new perfume, Beleive. I want to state that she had a tremendous wig on! Looks better than her real hair.. Anyways, so whats going on with the stealing thing? She doesnt need to steal; shes rich.. kind-of? I guess what I am saying is that I dont beleive this blog. :] IDK.
OOOH. oops, holy shit; man. thats harerrrrshhhhhhhhhh. :[ im sorry that that happened. thats really strange. what a man-whore with a fake ass wig. hahahhaha.
Can you please help me try to figure out how to use this video?
I cannot seem to get it to work. http://www.britneyvideosite.com
Britney is a good singer! Especially i like her third album!
Although I am definitely not a Brittany Spears fan I believe you should do some research before you start spouting off and getting others riled up. Mondonation has gotten together using Brittany Spears as their spokes person to promote this special edition t shirt while promoting her perfume. Elizabeth Arden is the maker of this perfume, and don’t you think they would have had their research crew for copy rights do their research before producing a product they could be sued for infringements for using the same logo? People it’s intentional….. get a clue……. even though the majority do not care for her, maybe she’s using her “clout” to generate monies to be donated to charities.
Although her decisions of late are not so to say to smart and a great person to represent Mondonation. The fact is it happened whether we liked it or not. So instead of being another hear sayer and running rampant at the mouth without knowing what you’re talking about. Find your facts first. Lord please don’t be voters unless you’re smart enough to educate yourself and not just believe what you hear!
Well said “E”! They are WORKING TOGETHER!
Thats really interesting stuff, and I was unaware of this controversy before reading this post. It seems unusual, in that that wasn’t a team of lawyers to look into this prior to releasing of Britney’s perfume.
What is the big deal – get a life its a LOGO who cares!!!!!!
the nerve of some people… what do they think they won’t get caught stealing others designs..? people just need to become a little more creative with design… and not creative with stealing..!
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get over it it guys i never heard of it until now this is dumb and pathetic i think u guys r still in the stereo type of anti britney shes not all this its her people and shes not the bad guy u guys r blowin this way out of proportion!!!fucken stupid asses!!get a life instead of talkin bad about britney!!unless thats all u guys know
My personal opinion, i think it’s just another trick from Britney to get popularity.
Great info, thanks for the post!