Virginia Montanez has a highly entertaining post about a rubber duck death match between The Cultural Trust (Pittsburgh) and Toonseum founder Joe Woz. At issue is a local event featuring a giant floating rubber duck that will be built and floated down the river. The Cultural Trust has spent a tidy sum of money to get “The Rubber Duck Project” off the ground – or in the water. Enter Joe, who created and is selling a t-shirt featuring a rubber duck with some of the proceeds going toward The Toonseum. The issue is the rubber duck in question (the one on the river) is a normal, generic rubber duck. And the Trust is going nuts because many individuals are using the image of a generic rubber duck in their own business promotion leading up to the big ducking event.
Virginia writes:
If the artist had created some Phineas and Ferb-esque insane contraption that floated on the river, pulled in river water and turned it into wine and glitter before shooting it out of a cannon, then maybe the Toonseum shouldn’t make a “SHOOT WINE AND GLITTER OUT YOUR BUTT N’AT!” shirt.
But it’s a duck. A rubber duck.
And no matter how much you capitalize it, it’s still just a rubber duck, Ernie.
8. Joe refused to pull down the shirt, and instead informed the public that the Trust had sent him a cease and desist, at which time … VIRAL HAPPENED.