Yahoo's multi-million dollar ad campaign may have been compromised by Google's tribute to Art Clokey.
Mountain View, CA—If you performed a Google search on October 12th, you likely noticed another fun little “Google Doodle” that the smart guys over at Google do every now and then on special occasions like birthdays, holidays or some important, obscure, little-known anniversary of something or other. Because on the 12th, the Google folks did a little doodle consisting of balls of colored clay that turned into animated characters of varying levels of fame commemorating pioneering stop motion clay animator Art Clokey’s 90th birthday.
The only problem is, Clokey’s most famous character, Gumby, is a YAHOO! man. And he’s up in green arms over the “tribute” to Clokey.
“I hate Google,” Gumby said in a statement through his publicist. “I never, ever use Google in my internet searches, and I sure as hell would never let them use my beautiful green image for anything. I’m a YAHOO! guy through and through, and I know that Mr. Clokey would not be happy in the least to see myself and Pokey and those other three losers associated with that second-rate internet albatross.”
Clokey died in 2010.
Gumby said he and Pokey and the other three characters no one was able to identify are seriously considering filing a lawsuit against Google, claiming the doodle design used their likenesses without their permission, and made it seem like they were promoting the search engine.
A Google spokesperson said the company had no comment on Gumby’s statement or the possibility of a lawsuit being filed.
In related news, representatives for Eddie Murphy said he is also contemplating a lawsuit, under the grounds that the “Google Doodle” may have infringed on his rights also, as one of Murphy’s more famous “Saturday Night Live” characters was his impression of the green clay figure.
Google may need to think twice about how they choose to alter their logo for special dates in the future after this doodle debacle.