American Girl Threatens Legal Action Over ‘Karen’ Parody Ad
Coronavirus aside, 2020 has seen the rise of the “Karens,” the entitled white women who have been caught on countless viral videos throwing public tantrums and demanding to speak to managers over everything from coffee orders to wearing a mask in public.
It seemed inevitable, then, that Karen would be immortalized as an American Girl. Even if it was only in a parody meme.
In an even “that’s so 2020” moment, American Girl was ready to sue. Yes, over a meme.
The whole affair started when Adam Padilla, aka “Adam the Creator,” posted a fake ad on Twitter proclaiming that American Girl’s “2020 Girl of the Year” doll was Karen. The doll, complete with the stereotypical haircut, a scowl, and a handgun, is seen pushing a Walmart cart.
The fake ad even boasts “She’s an independent thinker who refuses to wear a mask in public places!”
Here’s the parody ad.
Some real-life Karens seemed to think the ad was real, as they began tweeting it to American Girl demanding explanations.
After American Girl learned of the meme, they implied via Twitter that they were looking into the possibility of legal action.
“We were equally disgusted with this post,” they said in a tweet responding to someone mentioning the parody. “Please be assured we are taking the appropriate steps to ensure this is removed.”
They later responded to another tweet by stating “Thank you for taking the time to share this information with us. We were informed of this post a few days ago and are working with the appropriate teams at American Girl to ensure this copyright violation is handled appropriately.”
The Streisand Effect
The tweet mentioning the Streisand effect turned out to be prophetic. The Streisand effect was named for the singer, and refers to a situation in which attempts to suppress or remove unflattering information or comments have the opposite effect, and shine a spotlight instead.
As you might expect, American Girl’s tweets only made more people aware of the meme, and it spread like wildfire.
American Girl has made no further comment on the meme.
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