Craft beer brand Mountain Culture has fired a cease and desist notice to the Brisbane Olympics. Maybe.
The Blue Mountains-based brewer alleged that the Brisbane Olympics logo “looks an awful lot like the cockatoo” used on its cans since 2019.
It sent the cease and desist letter via a carrier cockatoo.
“The cockatoo is loud, cheeky and a known local larrikin. He’s represented in our logo by his iconic crest, and your emblem featues an incredibly similar one: five pointed feathers, both leaning to the right,” reads its cease and desist letter, posted to Instagram.
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“You’ve set the whole thing on fire, which we’ll admit is a strong look, but we know our crest when we see it.
“Mountain Culture demands that you stop using the flaming crest and replace it with a different bird. We’d suggest the ibis (bin chicken to its friends). It’s already a Brisbane local and nobody’s going to fight you for it. Set it on fire if you must.
“Lack of response within two business days mean we’re forced to pursue any and all remedies available to us, which, after checking with our lawyers, is mostly a strongly worded Instagram post.
“This is that post.
“We’d also accept tickets.”
It had been mooted that the ibis would be the emblem or mascot for the Brissie Olympics. It may yet be the case.
“I joke that if I had $1 for every time somebody said, ‘Can you make sure bin chickens are in there? Can you make sure Bluey is there? And what role is Baz Luhrmann going to play?’ I’d be a billionaire,” said Brisbane Olympics CMO Brent Hill at Cairns Crocodiles earlier this year.
“Look at our dining scene, and look at our events, including the Cairns Crocodiles, we’re a bit more sophisticated than that.
“We don’t all just walk around in togs, but that’s what the world wants. So there’s that lovely balance (between global perception and reality), a real juxtaposition, but the one thing I would say, we’re going to put bin chickens in somewhere.”
Response to the Brisbane Olympics logo from adland has been mixed but mostly positive.
Bradley Firth, Mountain Culture’s CMO, was the first-ever B&T CMO to Watch way back in March 2024. We’re still waiting for the slab he promised us.
