Well FCUKed

The psuedo irony of the French Connection FCUK branding gets right on my tits (well not literally as I don't own any of their t-shirts but you get the drift) and I find it somewhat distasteful to see young kids with the branding on - afterall if they'd shouted out "fuck it" to their parents they'd have been lamped, but hohoho it's fine for wear a t-shirt that portrays the same sentiment.

I can actually remember when French Connection was held up as a sophisticated label, reknowned for sleek styling etc and not as some sort of "I Read the Sun" identity tag for those lacking the ackers for fake Burberry.

So it was great whoops of delight that a link was found between a band I'm quite getting to like, IST, and slating FCUK. The link being that one of the lines from a song is "Your Boyfriend is a Cnut" and the rather enterprising KingCnut clothing line kindly did a t-shirt for them to commemorate the lyrics. Well cool.

But this isn't the end of the link, KingCnut have have a long running and vitriolic clash with those Fcukers at French Connection who were claiming that he'd stolen the idea for Cnut & Wnaker brandings from them - funny I thought that your average dyslexic would have been able to come up with a similar idea for free - and of course Cnut is now the "correct" spelling for the old King Canute from old, my the teaching profession must have welcomed that decision....

It's a fascinating story since it also highlights the number of brands that FCUK have had to pull when they were threaten with legal action - particularly like the Goodyear one. As KingCnut puts it, companies that are that possessive over trademarks (and nothing wrong in that) should apply the same criteria to their competitors marks. I was particulary impressed by the fact that KingC had taken it upon himself to contact the companies whose marks were being infringed as a "public spirited act" Standing up to bullies by getting a bigger bully involved is a sound strategy. Go Dave.

And if you go to the site - hunt out the anti-FCUK poem by Claire Whitefield - it says it all. An extract to give you a flavour of the sentiment:

"So may be once it was daring
To have badly spelt swearing
Emblazoned across your chest
But lads, looking like a sex pest
Is far from the best way
To communicate with a potential date
So when you start to flirt in a t-shirt
That says Am I your fantasy FCUK?
you'll understand why the smart women just look at you and turn away
.Because what good is an illiterate suitor
Who can't spell fuck, never mind Kama Sutra

So to King Cnut, IST and the rest - don't let the fcukers get you down!