Dear Edwina,
On the left, a poster created by The Ant Farm in 2005. On the right, a poster created by mOcean in 2013. I see a few similarities here. I'm glad you're posting again!
Well, neither augurs well for the state of matrimony, but the one on the right is merely an example of Monkey See, Monkey Do Something Different, while the one on the left clearly says, “Fuck you, Robert Kingston!”
Anne Kingston’s The Meaning of Wife was published in 2004. The concept for the book cover came from the author's brother, Robert Kingston, who works as a creative director in advertising in Toronto. When The Family Stone poster came out, Anne's lawyers contacted Fox requesting that it change the key art.
"It's a total uphill battle," she said. "We're dealing with Rupert Murdoch, right? But it's just infuriating."
Update: One of our readers, a Mr. Phillip Bates, has pointed out the one sheet for Committed (2000) which predates the book jacket design.
Also look at the one sheet for Committed (http://www.impawards.com/2000/committed.html)
done in 2005, which trumps Kingston.
Posted by: Phillip Bates | Thursday, February 06, 2014 at 05:09 PM
Pretty certain The Other Women poster and The Family Stone posters are two different concepts. Unless anything on seamless with an engagement ring is monkey see, monkey do.
Posted by: Meh. | Thursday, February 06, 2014 at 06:07 PM
Yes, Meh. Which is why we stated: "the one on the right (The Other Woman) is merely an example of Monkey See, Monkey Do Something Different."
The Monkey See, Monkey Steal headline refers to the book jacket design vs. The Family Stone art.
Posted by: Edwina Trout | Thursday, February 06, 2014 at 06:50 PM
The "Committed" key art is bad. Really bad.
And i doubt Kingston ever saw it. I sure as hell never did.
Posted by: Fuck off, it's Friday | Friday, February 07, 2014 at 01:58 PM
While I've seen the "Committed" art before I've never noticed the finger thing. The knuckle duster concept is pretty good though.
Posted by: Oswarez | Friday, February 07, 2014 at 02:07 PM
As the guy who wrote the copy line and came up with concept for the Ant Farm “Family Stone” poster I fully admit to stealing the idea.
I stole it from an unused concept sketch I did for “The Third Wife’s Club” back in 1995 (I’ve found that if you keep submitting the same idea over and over there’s a chance it’ll eventually stick). Suffice to say I’d never laid eyes on the Anne Kingston book cover prior to the point at which Fox contacted the Ant Farm.
More to the point, Fox’s lawyers were able to produce at least one other example of the same basic concept having been produced prior to Ms. Kingston’s book cover (a European album cover, if memory serves).
What’s amusing is to me is that Ms. Kingston regards the ring/ finger concept as being so original and unique that only her brother could have conceived it. My only regret is that Rupert Murdoch never asked me to join forces with him in an evil plot to steal an obscure, and not terribly inventive, dust jacket concept. Because that would have been awesome!
Posted by: Rob McFarlane | Sunday, February 09, 2014 at 01:22 PM
While I'm in a confessional mood, I'll also cop to having misstated the title of "The First Wife's Club" in my previous post. No doubt I'll be hearing from the late Olivia Goldsmith's attorneys...
Posted by: Rob McFarlane | Sunday, February 09, 2014 at 02:05 PM
"...if memory serves" = LOL!
Posted by: What A. Putz | Monday, February 10, 2014 at 08:18 PM
The problem with both the "finger" concepts (Rob)is that it's impossible for the human hand to function as it's depicted. The ring finger can't be that vertical, independent of your other fingers. You're trying right now, aren't you? See, it can't be done.
Posted by: Art Corrector | Tuesday, February 11, 2014 at 08:53 AM
Yeah, my hand is all crampy now. Thanks a lot, Art Corrector. I do think it helps that the Family Stone pose was shot from a slightly higher angle than that of the Kingston cover, but I certainly see your point.
Incidentally, it’s been so long now, but I suspect the inspiration for my original “First Wife’s Club” finger concept derived from an old photo of Kurt Cobain (Google “Kurt Cobain ring finger flip-off”). My original thumbnail depicted a female hand popping out of a wedding cake, ring finger extended. In an earlier post I’d made mention of an album cover, but I'm pretty sure I was thinking of the Cobain photo. Point being (for the three or four of you who still care) if anyone got ripped-off it was probably Kurt Cobain and his photographer.
Posted by: Rob McFarlane | Tuesday, February 11, 2014 at 11:44 AM
"The first rule of Fight Club is: You do not talk about Fight Club. The second rule of Fight Club is: You do not talk about Fight Club..."
Posted by: Tyler Durden | Tuesday, February 11, 2014 at 01:16 PM