Date: Mon 9 Oct 2000
From: Maid Marian
Subject: Re: Costco Theme Camp
Adrian, one of the things you'll see a lot at Burning Man is "parody". I've
included Rico on my response to you as he's one of the primary organizers of
Costco Soulmate Outlet, and I'm certain he'd like to engage in a friendly
dialog as to why they chose that name. Please be nice to him, he's a good
man and as committed as that come towards the ethics of Burning Man.
You will never find "corporate sponsorship" at Burning Man, and when logos
interfere by force on vehicles and tshirts you'll see the citizenry work to
reduce their presence.
However, it's through parody that we can reclaim things from our world
around us, and I don't believe the use of Costco denigrates the burning man
experience.
You will be amused to know that CostCo has threatened to sue because they
had a website up using their name. Also, National Geographic tried to sue
another theme camp called Irrational Geographic. Now, if you ask me the fact
they they've been agressive towards these camps is all the more reason
to have them thumb their noses at the corporate legal eagles and do as they
please at Burning Man. I mean what better to have than nekkid people walking
into the "un" Costco. Doesn't that mean we can rebuild and redefine things
as we wish?
someone burned the Nike "swish" this year, and other Nike products (no
tennis shoes due to toxic problems with that)...i think we should co-opt as
much of the commercial world as possible. I DO agree there is a limit, but i
don't see that we are at a point where we need to define that for the
community.
thanks for your email.
