Photo: Kuwait – Blatant Business Identity Theft……

 

It always bemuses me why I see so much blatant ‘Business Identity Theft’ in Kuwait. It’s a sad joke really.

Multi National Companies spend millions of dollars a year on their logos and their corporate branding. It must therefore, drive them absolutely insane to see places like Kuwait discarding copyrights and laughing in the face of acceptable, ethical business etiquette.

Just off the top of my head, I can think of 5 or 6 cases of undeniably identity theft in Kuwait. It typically ranges from a sneaky ‘play on words’ to a more sinister ‘redesign’ of a famous International logo.

What I don’t understand is what goes through the heads of these talentless, thieving buffoons. How can they essentially copy and paste someone else’s creations – whilst trying to pass it off as their own concept?! I mean seriously, who are they kidding? Are they even kidding?

Let’s take ‘Batriq’ restaurant as a ‘golden’ example. It’s an overly obvious and blatant rip of the McDonald’s logo. Anyone and everyone could attest to that.

Instead of the world famous ‘Golden Arched M ‘….. Batriq gave us the ‘not-so-famous-and-sadly-pathetic B.’ ……Hell, they didn’t even BOTHER to change the Gold and Red theme!

I was inspired to write this post after I saw downtown Beirut’s ultra famous, ultra chic department store ‘Aishti’ sitting quietly in a backstreet neighborhood of Salmiya.

So what of Kuwait’s ‘Aishti’? Can we expect more of the same high caliber, high fashion designer wear?

Well, not quite. In fact, Kuwait’s ‘Aishti’ is a ‘women beauty saloon.’

Wow…..How very, very creative.

And if that’s not bad enough, would you take a look at that logo – looks awfully familiar doesn’t it?