Mirage has always tried to keep the turtles free of political statements (Archie book and v. 4 letters col aside), especially when it comes to licensing.
About two years ago two of our licensees - Giant (t-shirts) and Kids Headquarters (mass market children's clothing) submitted, independently of one another, clothing designs that featured camo patterns along with semi-militaristic icons (Air Force-like wings, for example) - about a half dozen from each company. After I rejected the designs outright, each licensee complained to our agency 4Kids, who in turn pressured me, and so I gave in a little, compromising and allowing each licensee do one item from their original respective submissions. I then worked with the Giant salesman to come up with a non-militaristic camo pattern that could be used on several new shirt designs. Those new patterns utilized color schemes based on the turtles' signature colors, and for a leaf pattern we created one that looked more rainforest than traditional camo (and thus loosely linked the pattern to Leo's rainforest sojourn from the movie). That's the back story.
Recently the same salesman from Giant submitted the camo pattern pictured here. Citing our past discussions and Mirage's clearly stated position re "No camo," I rejected the submission. The next thing I know I get a direct phone call from the salesman, who then tried to weasel me into approving the design via confusing sales-speak. Again I said no, several times in fact. I then received phone calls from two employees of 4Kids, both of whom said that we would stand to lose $30,000 in royalties due to my rejection. But I stood firm. A day or two later I get an email from the salesman, forwarding me an email from the t-shirt buyer from JC Penney, for whom the camo shirt would have been an exclusive. In that email, the JCP guy actually stated: "Seeing as I am one of your most substantial customers, why would I not be entitled to determine my own assortment? Especially when the style in question was our BEST SELLER…." (Caps, his.)
The answer to JCP of course is that Mirage is the licensor, that's why. The buyer's attitude is indicative of how the marketplace has changed since the Old School days. It is now the retailer who wields the power to dictate what they want.
I still rejected it though. That was on a Friday. Over the course of the weekend I gave it some thought, started to wafflle a little bit, thought maybe that if I were bugged yet again I might acquiesce (if I wasn't strongarmed about it).
On the following Monday one of those 4Kids people emailed me another request for approval of the camo design, this time claiming that JC Penney would cancel their entire TMNT t-shirt order, a loss of about a quarter of a million dollars. Okay, I thought, if it's that big of a deal, what's one t-shirt design, especially if it's simply camo without militaristic imagery? But the 4Kids rep made the mistake of not just directing the email to me, but also to CEO Gary (in effect going over my head, but I forgive her). Gary then sought out Pete's thoughts on the matter. And Pete stuck to his guns, as it were: no camo.
And has JC Penney indeed cancelled their entire TMNT t-shirt order? They have.
Welcome to the Age of the Retailer.
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