Chris Riddell VS. John Lewis

task 3&4 RCS images 

Author and illustrator Chris Riddell has accused John Lewis of using the character from his 1986
children’s picture book ‘Mr Underbed’ to create their successful recent Christmas advert released on Channel 5 on the 10th November, with their monster character ‘Moz the monster’. Not only do the characters look a like but both stories have similar beginnings. Upon coming across the advert Mr Riddell took to twitter on November 16th saying “John Lewis helps themselves to my picture book”. John Lewis responded suggesting that story lines with monsters under the bed have been around for many years and that there is no similarities between ‘Mr Underbed’ and their Christmas advert. Overall, the author had stated that he will not be suing John Lewis for their advert.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/john-lewis-accused-of-stealing-christmas-advert-idea-from-a-childrens-book-a3693536.html

I believe that this is not a form of plagiarism as I agree with John Lewis’ statement that story
lines with monsters under a Child’s bed is a very popular and typical tale when it comes to
children’s books and films. Riddell also agrees that this particular idea is not new, the fact that they both agree with this suggests that this is not a huge act of plagiarism. Additionally, I think this suggests that authors and companies who promote using advertisement are running out of innovative ideas, leading them to refer back to old ideas like monsters. Therefore, I believe that the author made a correct judgment not to sue John Lewis and as he further commented but to work together in the future to create something great.

 

 

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