Jonti Picking has taken to Twitter to question Nickelodeon’s advert for the new season of Sanjay and Craig, which he claimed resembles his Badgers animation.
On 20 January, Jonti (aka Weebl) called the advert “a pretty blatant copy of my work”.
The Badgers cartoon was created in 2003. It consists of a simple animation accompanied by electronic music. A voice chants “badger badger badger”, occasionally changing to “mushroom, mushroom” or “it’s a snake” in reference to the visuals. The YouTube version, uploaded in 2008, has over 22 million views.
In Nickelodeon’s trailer, a voice chants “Sanjay Sanjay Sanjay”, with interruptions of “brand new, brand new” and “a talking snake”.
@TheWeebl here you go pic.twitter.com/jHpF3IQl2l
— Gareth Cadamy (@MaxUrsa) January 20, 2016
Jonti was first notified about the advert by one of his Twitter followers, and has since tweeted Nickelodeon UK, inviting them to “have a chat”. Currently, Nickelodeon does not appear to have responded.
He has also received support from fellow creators, with Jack Howard and Liam Dryden speaking out about the issue.
Not cool @NickelodeonUK. What you gotta be stealing @TheWeebl's things for? https://t.co/LS8jnTEJr0
— Jack Howard (@JackHoward) January 20, 2016
This uncredited internet content ripoff is known in the Internet Content industry as "a dick move", @NickelodeonUK. https://t.co/0oRLvIVYSA
— Liam Dryden (@LiamDrydenEtc) January 20, 2016
Jonti stated on Twitter that “Realistically there’s nothing to do”, but that it would have been “nice to have been asked”.
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