Without the story, how do we know this doll's gay? If I buy one, can I make it "go straight"?
Posted on 01/04/2002 5:50:14 AM PST by Lorenb420
An online retailer of a gay doll resembling a United Parcel Service delivery man is refusing to pull the product, despite a threat by the courier giant to take it to court for trademark infringement.
The Billy Parcel Service (BPS) doll carries a package and wears a brown uniform with a UPS-like logo. It costs US$45.95 at BeProud.com, North America's leading online retailer of gay products.
It is the newest product in a line of dolls marketed to gay men. The other muscular 13-inch plastic figures wear generic uniforms of other "American heroes" -- the policeman, fireman, soldier, sailor and baseball player.
"The UPS delivery man has been elevated to the level of American hero, or the American icon. The company should be flattered," Audy Morgan, BeProud.com's co-owner, said yesterday.
Customers can buy a white BPS doll (Billy), Latino (Carlos) or black (Tyson).
UPS is not amused. Norman Black, company spokesman, said the company will sue the California retailer if it continues to ignore requests to stop selling the product.
The company has also requested all unsold merchandise be handed over for destruction.
"This particular product is a very clear infringement on our trademark, on our brand. It's not a generic policeman. It's not a generic fireman. It's very explicitly a UPS delivery man and that's an unacceptable use of our brand," Mr. Black said.
Thomas Curtin, trademark counsel for UPS, has written two letters to the retailers.
"No matter how humorous your company may consider the noxious 'BPS' Billy doll, that product creates an undesirable, unwholesome and unsavoury association with our client's well-known trademarks" -- the UPS logo and brown uniform, he wrote in a recent letter.
The "objectionable" product is advertised as being "'anatomically complete' and, we note, the doll is grotesquely so," Mr. Curtin stated.
Mr. Morgan said he is unmoved by the threat of legal action, which he says has fueled online sales in Canada and the United States.
Mr. Morgan said the similarities "are necessary to pull off the UPS parody. We're doing a parody here."
UPS is nearly 100 years old and has annual revenues of around US$30-billion. It is the world's largest package delivery service and operates in 200 countries.
The UPS delivery man, and his brown uniform, have become known in popular culture as a sexy, straight man after whom women lust.
For example, in Legally Blonde, a recent Reese Witherspoon movie, Paulette, the manicurist, gushes every time the UPS delivery man enters her beauty shop to drop off a package.
Mr. Black said UPS decides how to market the company. "We take very seriously the protection of our brand in any form. You can't operate globally without building and maintaining a recognizable brand."
Mr. Morgan said UPS's objection amounts to a double standard. "It's their right to have a double standard. It's their company. Whether or not it is advantageous to exercise those rights, that's a question they need to ask themselves. When something comes up that may be more risqué to a select clientele, that's also exposure to UPS and it's not negative exposure to UPS."
The Billy doll was created in 1994 in London by English fashion designer John McKitterick.
He originally created it as a limited collectible item for an AIDS benefit, but mass produced it because it was so popular. The product arrived in North American in 1997.
Mr. McKitterick's Totem International trademarked Billy as "The World's First Out and Proud Gay Doll" and his companion Carlos as "The World's First Out and Proud Boyfriend."
Buddy Tyson, the black doll, was launched in 1999. Boxer Mike Tyson and supermodel Tyson Beckford threatened to sue the manufacturer.
Uhhhhh.... I think I'll pass. ;^]
Uhhhh.... yeah.
Without the story, how do we know this doll's gay? If I buy one, can I make it "go straight"?
What people will do to get attention.
For the record, in my opinion, God does not "hate fags".
It is the act. Not the creation. And don't say He created it, I don't think one would want to add to or take away from His words.
On another subject.....grown men playing with dolls? This is something to BeProud of?
You're right, coming from him, it is sort of a compliment.
The UPS lawyer says the dolls are anatomically correct...grotesquely so, which means if you take the pants off the UPS doll, it has a huge wanker. That's a sexual overtone....
I heard they are going to do a Roise the Butch doll. Apperently the doll is some kind of talkshow host with a obsessive-complusive desire to take guns away from people.
Coming soon to a store near you :)
His dollhouse is a historic victorian and he loves to decorate it.
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