I’ve just had to check with L’Oréal, one of Lucire’s major advertisers, whether I can call my article on the night of L’Oréal Colour Trophy ‘Wake up to L’Oréality’ (some of you may be singing ‘I’ve Got You under My Skin’ right now).
   It is a tricky thing, parody. On the one hand, a humorous article may be welcome by readers. On the other hand, some of that humour comes at the expense of the client’s trade mark, and usually, that is a no-no.
   I play it on a case-by-case basis, but other companies may not be as open. It depends how much one wishes to be seen to be controlling—and as Google has shown us over the last few years, levity toward the logo might not be a bad thing if an irreverent culture is what one has to project.
   Might as well let people play than having your logo the subject of vandalism in anti-globalization contexts.
   However, from where I sit, the Lucire logo is sacrosanct and cannot, officially, be modified without my say-so. I would certainly think twice before allowing a parody of the name. This is despite my otherwise nice-guy approach to most things.
   We shall see what comments come from L’Oréal.
   My favourite bit in the piece, in addition to a more polite reference to Charmaine Guest’s love scene in Skin & Bone that I have already referred to on this blog:

While waiting in the wings, I chatted to Mint Condition’s Fiona Webster, who ran me through which envelope to take up with me, and to hosts Mikey Havoc and Jaquie Brown, whose asymmetric cut brought some comments that evening. We compared notes on John Campbell’s swearing.

   We at Lucire are thinking of you, John! Posted by Jack Yan, 12:09  permalink

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