by Kung Fu

The Vandals have been slapped with a cease and desist order due to the design of the group's logo on their latest album Hollywood Potato Chip. The trademark infringement accusation is arose as The Vandals' new logo parodies the logo of entertainment industry trade magazine The Daily Variety.

Bassist Joe Escalante commented on their website:

The theme of our album artwork is a cynical parody of the Hollywood entertainment industry. It's weird that a news organization that depends on free speech for its livelihood couldn't see the artistic merit of what we have done. In addition, the magazine was aware of the art several months ago when we sent out the album to review. I understand their response at that time was something to the effect of 'why didn't they get the real 'v' artwork directly from us so it would look better.'

If our logo reminds someone of their logo, it's because their logo is a symbol of the Hollywood entertainment industry that we have a right to parody; the way they would on Saturday Night Live or something. It's just a social comment. Now several months later, they want to cause problems for us, it's pretty sad.

You can compare the Daily Variety logo and Vandals logo for at their respective websites now.