Nickelodeon plagiarised a piece of SpongeBob SquarePants fanart for a recent promo advertising LEGO City Adventures

[vestan]

Original:

Stolen:

This is pretty self-explanatory, here's the promo itself.




The funniest thing about this entire incident is that if you search "spongebob background" into Google Images, the fan piece is literally the first result. Like, no effort went into actually attempting to pass this off as something legit, lmao.

Also Film Theory used this particular background, too. The power, the INFLUENCE of this damn background is beyond me.

 

[OG YOLOwen]

LMAOOOOOOO the irony

 

[TheJackdog]

ive worked in marketing for 10 years, at companies WAY smaller than nick.

Its so weird to me when this happens. I have to go through legal sometimes just to use stock footage and photos i bought. We even send our own images to get checked for plagiarism even if we made them ourselves.

 

[.exe]

Wow, that's great exposure for the original artist.

/s

 

[Finale Fireworker]

So how does this happen, usually? Somebody just searches the internet for what they're looking for the same way I do when making a meme? 🤔

 

[I am a Bird]

You're telling me nick didn't have any Background art to throw at that?

 

[Ultron]

So how does this happen, usually? Somebody just searches the internet for what they're looking for the same way I do when making a meme? 🤔

Click to shrink...

In this case looks like yes. It's literally the first image that comes up when you Google "Spongebob background".

 

[Betty]

So how does this happen, usually? Somebody just searches the internet for what they're looking for the same way I do when making a meme? 🤔

Click to shrink...

It's literally the first image you get if you search "Spongebob Background" so i'm guessing it's the lazier possibility.

 

[Man-is-Obsolete]

I mean couldn't the marketing team for this just ask Nickelodeon for a authentic spongebob background?

 

[Extra Sauce]

I mean couldn't the marketing team for this just ask Nickelodeon for a authentic spongebob background?

Click to shrink...

That sounds like a lot of work.

 

[Watchtower]

So how does this happen, usually? Somebody just searches the internet for what they're looking for the same way I do when making a meme? 🤔

Click to shrink...

Basically yes. It's unfortunately still a prevailing mindset that the Internet is still this "Wild West" that can be endlessly plundered, especially when it comes to art. And a big company like Nick's got enough money to let them throw their weight around.

 

[CrazyAndy]

Just apologize, Nickelodeon, say someone from the marketing team made a mistake, pay this guy 200 bucks and be done with it.

 

[onpoint]

Just apologize, Nickelodeon, say someone from the marketing team made a mistake, pay this guy 200 bucks and be done with it.

Click to shrink...

Can you imagine? Taking the easiest path to making everyone happy? Just once?