Here's the deal. I've written about 20 different intros to this post but none of them really worked. This could be due to me having more important things to worry about, or it could be that the two topics of this post — Hello Kitty cartoons and child beauty pageants — really freak me the Hell out.
From NewsOK:
The Japanese company that owns the Hello Kitty brand has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against an Oklahoma child beauty pageant that reportedly used the cartoon cat's image on its tiaras and trophies.
Sanrio Co. filed the suit in federal court against Cherilyn Holden and Kristi Musick, who run beauty pageants in Oklahoma under the name Definitely Divas. The suit claims Definitely Divas used the image without permission in the “Tickle Me Pink” beauty pageant last September.
David Marchi, Sanrio's senior director of brand marketing, tells a local business newspaper that the company learned of the pageant from a Hello Kitty fan who sent along a link to the pageant's Facebook page.
Neither Holden nor Musick returned calls seeking comment. Court records do not list an attorney for either woman.
First of all, this is probably a waste of time by the Hello Kitty people. These pageant organizers probably don't even know what a "copyright" is, much less how to respond to a lawsuit about one. I bet they think this whole fiasco has something to do with the discount copy machine that Uncle Earl keeps at his tag agency in Wewoka. These are the same nuts who make their daughters look like 28-year-olds and then trot them out to be judged by other crazy people. They're not exactly what you would call intelligent.
Also, does Hello Kitty creep anyone else out? Maybe I've seen Lost in Translation too many times, but when I look at Hello Kitty I'm instantly haunted by Asian school girls wearing glow necklaces and singing karaoke songs about pandas and Wipeout. Of course, until five minutes ago I thought Hello Kitty was a damn Pokemon character, so I guess that shows how out of touch I am with pre-school kid pop culture and baby pageants. That's probably a good thing.
