December 3, 2008

Auto Industry FAIL

[Update: I had originally made this image available on shirts, but concern was expressed over whether or not selling such merchandise violates Ford’s trademark, even though the image is clearly a parody. Until the issue is resolved, I am posting the image alone as art.]

As Ford, GM, and Chrysler head to Washington DC once again in hopes of convincing the government to give them a bailout, I’ve invoked the ever popular “FAIL” meme and came up with this image:

auto industry fail

Posted by David at 12:17 PM | Permalink
Filed under: Business | Politics
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Comments

Nice… I plan on posting about your shirt on my blog. Of course, with a link to you and the statement that you are my favorite blogger.

Posted by: Mr. Wisdumb | December 3, 2008 12:56 PM

The only problem with this is that Ford is actually in relatively good shape compared to the other 2.

Posted by: Miles | December 3, 2008 1:22 PM

Well, that, and I’d like to see a loopier l on there. :)

Posted by: Miles | December 3, 2008 1:23 PM

Nice. I second the loopier l suggestion, but it’s a nitpick.

Posted by: Adam Rex | December 3, 2008 2:22 PM

Ironic that you chose Ford, the one company of the U.S. automakers that’s actually in pretty good shape.

You can see exactly what we’ve been up to and what we’re presenting to Congress - asking for access to a line of credit *should we need it* (not a bailout, as you state) some time next year - by visiting The Ford Story at http://www.thefordstory.com.

The bottom line is, Ford is in a much stronger position than our U.S. competitors.

Scott Monty
Global Digital Communications
Ford Motor Company

Posted by: Scott Monty | December 3, 2008 2:34 PM

LMAO! I just spewed chewed-up Lays and delicious Coca-Cola all over my keyboard. Mmmm…. sticky.

I don’t think Ford is in the position right now to give two craps about copyright.

@ Scott Monty: It’s not ironic. Please stop making the word irony mean nothing by calling everything that isn’t ironic, ironic. It wouldn’t have been funny to replace the letters GM with fail for obvious reasons.

Posted by: Reed Braden | December 3, 2008 2:52 PM

Pretty sure this clearly falls into fair use under parody. I see a billion shirts like this for sale everywhere. I say sell it.

Posted by: sam | December 3, 2008 3:10 PM

I’d pay $20 for a shirt with that on it.

Posted by: Pierre Larochelle | December 3, 2008 3:17 PM

For the record, I did consider making the l loopy, but decided on a straight l to keep it visually similar to the d on the real Ford logo, which is non-loopy. -David

Posted by: David | December 3, 2008 4:33 PM

Won’t be so ironic when a couple million folks are out of work and nobody has the money to purchase your work, or pay taxes, or social security, or medicare, yada, yada

Posted by: Uncle Eddie | December 3, 2008 5:44 PM

You invoked the ever popular “FAIL” meme? Pah! The US auto-industry started the FAIL meme themselves, way back when they decided against producing energy-efficient vehicles.

Posted by: devolute | December 3, 2008 7:09 PM

You should consider licensing the image to Ford. They could probably sell enough shirts that they wouldn’t need any money from the Feds.

Posted by: Chris Berry | December 3, 2008 11:12 PM

“concern was raised”? More like “the CafePress IP gestapo forced the products to be taken down pending further review.”

I’ve tried selling a variety of parody designs with them and they’re all invariably rejected. CafePress is very heavy-handed in (over-)enforcement of copyright.

Posted by: Ben | December 4, 2008 12:16 AM

Perhaps while CafePress are mockblocking you (I just made that word up) you could provide a link to buy plain t-shirts and that iron-on transfer paper, in case anyone has a really massive need to wear a shirt with this on it…

Posted by: PKM | December 4, 2008 6:27 AM

Dear friends, keep on buying those Toyota’s, Kia’s, Honda’s and everything but a made in USA by American Companies and American workers and all that Chinese crap from Wal-Mart. It will come back to bite you on the ass. But hey, what you think you save now, you pay for later.

Posted by: Gordon Scott | December 4, 2008 6:53 AM

Hey Americans, why so fearful? As soon as something threatens the wealth of the ones that have a lot to lose, you lose your sense of humour. Taking the mickey is a national sport in the U.S., isn’t it? And it’s not only about making cars either! If you fail in making economic, ecologic cars, it’s no wonder people will chose the ones made to cost less after the purchase.

And what’s this reactional talk about hybrid cars from Ford, this development will cost them mor than the loss the make right now! And it has started decades ago with other companies. If you have to go under, do it with a smile and a t-shirt stating the reason for it!

Posted by: Igee | December 4, 2008 10:36 AM

Mr. Monty makes a good point by saying Ford is in good shape compared to the other two “Big 3” companies, but Ford has also stated if the other two companies go under, Ford will likely “fail” too.

Posted by: Todd Hawley | December 4, 2008 3:21 PM

Hey Gordon, you know Toyota has several major factories in America, right?

Posted by: Jen | December 5, 2008 12:58 PM

You should sell those shirts in Australia. Half of Australians hate ford (as is the competition to Holden in the V8 supercars) and would wear these t’shirts around proudly on the days that they are not wearing their “Piss on Ford” t’shirts.

Posted by: clever | December 6, 2008 1:00 AM

Dear friends, keep on buying those Toyota’s, Kia’s, Honda’s and everything but a made in USA by American Companies and American workers and all that Chinese crap from Wal-Mart.

Eh? Dude, you might want to check where Toyota manufactures vehicles. Five major plants now and another on its way. Honda has 13 manufacturing facilities in America.

Posted by: Benson | December 7, 2008 11:52 PM

Nevermind, they cited. :P

Posted by: Malkara | December 9, 2008 6:31 PM

Ford deserves to fail. They make a shiddy product.

My late husband worked for years as a mechanic at a Ford dealership. He and his coworkers had one major purchase-choice in common…not one of them owned a ford.

Toyotas were the car of choice.over 50% of them owned Toyotas..those with J in the VIN.

Some had Chevy Trucks…some even had Dodge P/U…there were two Jeeps…CJ-5s…but nary a Ford.

Posted by: catnapping | December 9, 2008 9:43 PM

in the nineties i wore a similar t-shirt saying “Fuct” instead of Ford.

Posted by: sum1 | December 14, 2008 2:17 PM

Why just fail when you can flop over and choke to death on the shit you left in the open yesterday? I used to think car companies were naught but pimps selling tickets to Mother Nature’s gang-rape, but now I can clearly see they were only holding the bathroom stall open while putting punters at ease with their Prince of Bel Aire quotes and and ’90s themed haircuts. Energy efficiency won’t get my cociane up my nose so how about the rest of you just f*ck off and die.

Posted by: Andy | December 15, 2008 4:31 PM

Haha, I love it! Sell this to Ford, so they can sell the shirts and bail themselves out. Then the government will only be concerned with the other two.

Posted by: deepikaur | December 15, 2008 11:02 PM

deepikaur, want to know the sad truth?

FIAT, the biggest italian car maker, for a while, possibly made more money by selling branded products (like hoodies, sweatshirts, cameras, mp3 players) than selling cars…

ok, the fact that they sold more gadgets than cars is completely made up ;) but their cars were so CRAPPY (you have no idea… fords are engineering marvels in paragon) that branded t-shirts were what came to mind when you thought FIAT. T-shirts, not cars.

Fortunately they managed to incredibly raise their stardards in the last couple of years.

Then the crisis struck and now they’re shutting down manifacturing plants, leaving 60.000 workers at home[*].

Marcello

[*] they’re not firing people, yet. here in italy we have a system for which the state pays workers’ wages instead of companies in time of crisis.

Posted by: Marcello | December 16, 2008 2:47 AM

it’s a clear parody, you’re good.

/trademark attorney.

(but i’m not your attorney, so it would be unprofessional of me to tell you that…)

Posted by: ed | December 18, 2008 9:49 PM

I like “Frod” better, but then I was always a Chevy guy until I bought my first Toyota.

Posted by: Georgia Sam | December 19, 2008 2:06 PM

Hey, just wanted to say your image is being used without credit:

http://worldoftimepass.com/general/2008-economic-crisis-new-company-logos/

Dunno if you care about this sort of thing. But it doesn’t seem very nice of them.

Posted by: Christine | January 21, 2009 12:49 AM

hate to say it, but the text is not optically centered in the oval. needs a nudge to the right.

;)

sorry, cannot turn off training.

Posted by: optical fail | April 9, 2009 3:53 PM