https://twitter.com/Goldust/status/741324147460952064
Last month, WWE got into a bit of hot water regarding one of their t-shirt designs. If you’ve forgotten or didn’t catch it, John Cena had a shirt that looked almost identical to the logo of beer company Pabst Blue Ribbon, and after PBR called them out on Twitter, WWE stopped the production of it, just a day or so after they put it up for sale.
Now, just a few weeks later, the company is in a similar circumstance after the release of their latest shirt design for the comedy tag team, The Golden Truth. If you somehow have missed everyone quoting the same five lines from Step Brothers for the past eight years, the 2008 comedy starring Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly features a poster that WWE has obviously parodied for their latest design.
It’s worth noting that while it may seem like a strange move to okay this shirt so close to the PBR controversy, WWE is probably in the clear legally on this situation. While The Golden Truth artwork clearly resembles the Step Brothers poster, it’s not a direct copy of it and, if Columbia were to take them to court, they could cite parody fair-use, and the movie studio wouldn’t have a leg to stand on when it came to market confusion.
As for who is actually ponying up $25 to buy a Golden Truth t-shirt, that is something WWE might have a much harder time answering.
