The prime mover of David and Goliath, Todd
Goldman is the talk of the town for so many reasons. One, David and Goliath’s
revenues in 2004 had breached the $90 million mark. Two, his controversial
slogans irked a lot of people in 2004 & 2008. Third, he was charged of
plagiarism in 2007.
Todd Goldman started out as a CPA after finishing college
with an accounting degree although he enjoyed painting in his earlier years and
in fact, he even attended an art academy. He went into the apparel industry
when he got burned out working as an accountant. He launched David and Goliath,
a merchandise company, with the money his father lent him. The company had its
early beginnings in Clearwater, Florida in 2000. It also lists accessories,
bags, books, and sleepwear as its products.
Goldman became notorious because of his
slogans printed on his merchandise. Slogans such as “Boys are stupid, throw
rocks at them!” were much talked about in 2004. Glenn Sacks started a campaign
against Goldman’s slogan shirts which led to the pullout of art of Disney merchandise from various retailers
such as Nordstrom, Disney Store, K-Mart, and Dapy in 2005. A year later,
Goldman also published a book with the same title as his infamous slogan. That
book even had its Russian translation. Goldman also released a game “Boys Are
Stupid” and “Stupidopoly”. On that same year, Jack Gallery started featuring art
of disney.
In April 2007, Dave Kelly, a web cartoonist,
accused art of disney
of plagiarism. He accused Goldman of copying his Purple Pussy comic which he
published in 2001 in coming up with his own “Dear God Make Everyone Die”. The
following month, Goldman agreed to a settlement with Kelly by giving the latter
all the revenues the former earned all art of disney paintings. In return,
Kelly was to drop all charges against Goldman. In June 2007, Goldman worked
with FOX on “The Uglies”, a show about the ugliest family in the entire world.
During fall, he also published “Girls Are WeirdosBut They Smell Pretty”. A year
later, he also worked with Ashton Kutcher in designing a BLAHgirls.com.
Pop-Factory was also established in July 2008
to sell his art of disney paintings. Goldman’s roster of clients includes the
Wayans Brothers, John Goodman, Paul McCartney, Rihanna, and Jessica Simpson.
His T-shirt designs are very popular with people from all walks of life. Sense
magazine published an interview with Goldman wherein he shared his sentiments
regarding all these controversies. He said that he has his own design people in
Florida who design his t-shirts. Some of these shirt designs were made into
pieces of art by the man himself.
He thought all images produced by his team
were all original. He admitted that one of his workers may have taken
inspirations from the works of Dave Kelly. Goldman got an image from those
shirt designs to make a great work of art and named it “Dear God Make Everyone
Die”. His artwork was displayed at Jack Gallery and when somebody saw it, the
whole internet brouhaha started. When he realized what’s happening, he gave the
revenues from the paintings to Dave Kelly, worth $10,000, and apologized.
Although there was no lawsuit, people in the internet just kept talking about
the whole thing.
About The Author:
The
works of Todd Goldman can be viewed by clicking
on http://www.coachmkt.com/decoratorsartgallery/decorators-art-gallery/todd-goldman.html. The great pieces of art of Disney can also be purchased from the same
site.
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