Tuesday, January 11, 2011

knock it off

I'm not really a designer-label, brand-name kinda girl.
I will only buy Bounty paper towels and I will only use Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup in my green bean casserole, but besides those two i don't care about brands. Generally, i buy what is on sale, as long as it works.
Also, i usually don't really mind knock-offs.
Sometimes, companies work so hard to avoid copyright and trademark infringement that the resulting product is downright hilarious, like when TM Amy bought the Transmogrifier, Starholler at a convenience store.
I do embrace that there might be a cheaper version of something for those of us in lower tax brackets. BUT, a girl has got to draw the line somewhere.
 
What is with these Hello Kitty wannabes?
 They have a slightly different shaped head, a pink nose instead of yellow and wings: tiny, blue wings.
Ridiculous, i say.
The worst part is her name,
Angel Cat Sugar.
I don't know why that name bothers me so much, but it really rankles my nerves. I was aghast, people, just aghast. Until I found out that Angel Cat Sugar isn't exactly a Hello Kitty knock-off; she's from a line of toys designed by the original Hello Kitty creator, Yuko Shimizu, introduced in 2002 whose popularity in Europe has apparently increased in the last two years.
So she's like Hello Kitty's younger, European step-sister.
I don't know if that makes me less agitated by her existence, or more.
One question remains: what in the world was she doing in the discount Christmas aisle of my CVS?

off-topic note: Happy 1-11-11!

5 comments:

Michelle said...

Oh god I know what you mean! It's weird because Hello Kitty is so simple, but to see something similar to her, but just a little bit off, is very irritating and confusing. I knew a girl in high school who got a tattoo of Winnie the Pooh (we won't even go into the brilliance behind that idea...) and somehow it looked like the off-brand version. Kind of like when Doug left Nickelodeon and went to the Disney Channel. Weird stuff.

Anonymous said...

I had no idea Doug even went to the Disney Channel!

Kaaren said...

We own an Angel Cat Sugar book. Isabel purchased it from a Scholastic Book Fair. It's very...simple.

Melanie said...

Hee hee! We only buy Bounty (and Campell's for the GB casserole), too! Great consumers think alike... :)

Douglas said...

Wait, I went where?