Stealing a page out of Modernista's book, Skittles launches a site that uses social networking and media sites as its backdrop. Like the Modernista site, the effect is unexpected and attention getting. Choosing Twitter for this experiment was pretty gutsy. Whereas they could have more control over what goes on their YouTube and Facebook pages, the sentiment on Twitter isn't all too positive. You can check the live feed of Skittles tweets at Newstrendz, a new social trends site. But a more troubling issue with this design is its similarity to Modernista's and calls to question the issue of plagiarism.
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This, and the Shepard Fairey law suit, is making me think more and more about the issue of plagiarism vs. inspiration. This reminds me of how BBDO ripped Spike Jonze's "Full Flared" video for its Skittles commercials. If, for instance, Modernista designed Skittles or Jonze directed the Snickers ad, I wouldn't be bothered. But this just feels like someone is plagiarizing and being lazy.
According to this site, the project was done by Agency.com. Adfreak.com also covers the discussion and mentions an earlier Zeus Jones site as the inspiration for Modernista.
What Fairey does, in my opinion, pales in comparison to what these ad agencies are doing. That's what I think today anyway.
On the other hand, it's just floating nav, a frameset, and links to social media sites. Yes, Modernista did it first, but this might become commonplace.
We all use top nav bars and side nav, does that mean we're plagiarizing whoever used them first?
I'd rather we remixed nav more and more, because the world needs better nav. I don't like the thought of navigation being copyrighted and most derivative ideas stopping as of 2009. The medium is just too young to be stifled.
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Victor Lombardi
True, it's just a gimmick, and one that I'm sure we'll see a bit more now. Modernista may have not even been the first apparently. It's just a thought provoking discussion about where the line gets crossed. I think the Jonze video is a better one to raise that issue though. I don't think you can argue that that's a riff or mashup of another's idea at all.
The issue with Skittles may have more to do with creativity. If you were the Skittles people would you be happy with this tactic, knowing that the ideas were just taken from elsewhere? Add to that the fact that there's been some potentially offensive language in those tweets. I don't know. Maybe you would as a Skittles Exec? Any thing to get attention.
You're right, I'm connecting unrelated dots perhaps by bringing up the Fairey and Jonze stuff. It's all just floating in the ether right now, so I'm processing my thoughts on this.
I have no problem with finding inspiration and folding it into one's design vocabulary. And I'm not saying that ideas need to be copyrighted. But the experimentation in this example is really not doing much for me. Then again, I'm sure most of the people who will ever see this site won't ever know about Modernista. And I would guess that Modernista doesn't care either.
[...] SkittlesMarch 2, 2009 [...]
I think that the fact the Skittles site was made by Agency.com, the same ones that were responsible for that atrocious Subway pitch, is already cause for alarm.
If the Skittles section wasn't placed in the same area as the Modernista one, then maybe it wouldn't have been such a huge deal. Unfortunately, it is.
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