Disney and Unknown Pleasures

First reported on the Pitchfork music site, recently Msn.com covered the story of a T-shirt designer for Disney who had “borrowed” the design from the Joy Division album cover “Unknown Pleasures.” As the article points out, no two entities could be more unalike than the Disney empire and the music created by the long-defunct punk band (whose singer, Ian Curtis, committed suicide in 1980).

The offending T-shirt from Disney, using the "Unknown Pleasures" design.

Beside that incongruity, the greatest irony is that Disney so closely guards its copyrights, if they were infringed upon, that entity would be issued a cease and desist order so fast heads would spin. The T-shirt was pulled, due to controversy over copyright theft but you can get a look at it here, and read the Msn.com article here.

The original image, according to Wikipedia, was taken from the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Astronomy, an illustration of “pulses of the first pulsar.” This original image featured a white background with black lines, so the colors were switched out for the album cover image.

It’s hard to believe someone at Disney thought this was an appropriate idea for their merchandise. It makes me wonder if the designer was a Joy Division fan a little bored with their job, and wanting to see if anyone would notice the connection. If so, mission accomplished. And ultimately, failed.