A Quick Note On Bluenotes

Not to take away from my prior post, but today's official "new" thing is an issue that was brought to my attention by a friend reading The Varsity, U of T's student newspaper.

Approximately one month ago, Bluenotes took the slogan for the CFS' (Canadian Federation of Students) widely known (at least among students) "No Means No" anti-date rape campaign and bastardized it into a highly offensive t-shirt. The Bluenotes shirt in question, instead of proclaiming "NO MEANS NO", had writing across the front saying "NO MEANS aNOther drink".

Now, obviously, the CFS was angry about this; not only did it rip off the copyright (albeit in terms of "parody") for the program's logo, but it also promoted the dangerous behaviour they are trying so hard to prevent.

Luckily, Bluenotes' president, Michael Roden, quickly apologized when this was made a public issue. More importantly, he offered to have Bluenotes assist the CFS in re-designing the program's logo, and to sell CFS approved "No Means No" shirts in Bluenotes stores across Canada with proceeds going to women's charities.

An example of new gone bad -- gone good.