Laugh it Off

This article was originally published on page 3 of Cape Times on November 11, 2004

Laugh It Off again faces wrath of breweries
Nazma Dreyer
November 11 2004

SAB Miller is once again hauling Laugh It Off (LIO) before the Cape High Court – this time to stop the small T-shirt company’s annual publication and calendar.

This is the second time that LIO is doing battle with the second-largest brewery in the world.

In 2002 SABMiller took LIO to court over its T-shirt that sported the words “Black Labour, White Guilt. South Africa’s lively lusty exploitation since 1652. No Regard Given Worldwide.”

The words on a Black Label bottle read: “Black Label, Carling Beer. America’s Lusty Lively Beer. Brewed in South Africa.”

Earlier in 2004 the Supreme Court of Appeal rejected LIO’s appeal against a Cape High Court decision in favour of SABMiller.

Justice Roger Cleaver found the slogan was not a “harmless, clean pun” as LIO had argued, but “bordered on hate speech”.

Now SABMiller has applied for a fresh interdict against LIO to stop the printing of its annual youth publication and calendar as they include a picture of the T-shirt.

The LIO received a letter in October that said SABMiller was to apply for an interdict against the company.

The Cape High Court granted the brewery an interim interdict in November.

The matter is to be heard again next Thursday.

The annual publication is a collection of youth culture reports, stories, poems, graphics and photographs.

LIO owner Justin Nurse could not be reached for comment, but his business partner, Chris Verrijdt, said he would not comment as the matter was “delicate and there had been no developments”.

Adrian Botha, spokesperson for SABMiller London, said his company had sought an interdict to prevent Nurse from publishing material “that infringes the breweries’ trademark Carling Black Label and which would be in contravention of a high court and a Supreme Court of Appeal ruling”.

“Notwithstanding repeated requests, we have not received an acceptable undertaking from Nurse that he will refrain from publishing the infringing material.

“If we do receive an acceptable undertaking from him we will regard the matter as resolved.”

Asked whether SABMiller was not tarnishing its public image by taking the small T-shirt company to court again, Botha said: “The high court and Supreme Court of Appeal have ruled in our favour.

They pointed out that the issue had nothing to do with freedom of expression, which we strongly support.

The courts had found that Nurse’s company had abused its freedom of expression by taking a company’s trademark, distorting it and using it in products sold for its commercial gain – particularly where the effect was “to tarnish a brand without just cause”.