MSCHF Asks Corporate Lawyers to Start Their Engines With 'Cease & Desist Grand Prix'

If you're a regular person just trying to make it through the week with as little drama as possible, a cease-and-desist order from an all-powerful conglomerate is something that you'd wholeheartedly avoid. But if you're gutsy creative collective MSCHF, you not only welcome the trouble—you bank on it. Behold, MSCHF's latest drop, the "Cease & Desist Grand Prix." The collective revealed the new stunt in a tweet containing the campaign's dedicated website. https://twitter.com/mschf/status/1485643629188288519 The "Cease & Desist Grand Prix" is a limited merch drop, a race and an opportunity to poke at litigious companies rolled into one very big dare. It starts with a racing-inspired shirt and eight major companies: Disney, Amazon, Subway, Starbucks, Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Tesla and Walmart. MSCHF manufactured a limited quantity of shirts—each of which illegally bears the logo of a different company along with sleeves littered with MSCHFied versions of famous logos like those of Pringles and Skittles. MSCHF fans were given the option to buy one of eight designs tied to the unwilling corporate racers. Independent creators can never fight real legal action with a corporation: they can’t afford it.MSCHF But those who participate aren't just buying a shirt. They're essentially betting on which company they think will be the first to send a cease-and-desist order. Whichever company sends a letter to MSCHF first "wins" the Grand Prix, and those who bought the shirt linked to the winning company will receive a free hat to commemorate the victory. This latest stunt, numbered Drop #68, follows the collective's recently developed online game "Tontine" which was modeled after an old group investment scheme where participants would literally profit off of the deaths of fellow investors. Welcoming the trouble MSCHF's telltale work often challenges the status quo and, yes, the law. Its most notable stunt to date, Lil Nas X's Satan Shoes containing drops of real blood, earned legal action from Nike for the unauthorized use of the shoe brand's swoosh iconography. The matter was settled out of court in April 2021. This new work brazenly welcomes the eventual legal pushback, which the creative shop references in a manifesto defending independent creatives who are often targeted in far less egregious scenarios. "You spend your days playing legal whack-a-mole with harmless and inevitable brand infringement," MSCHF writes. "We’ve made a different game for you! Your C&Ds are used to shut down independent creativity, but now you have the opportunity to use one to participate in an actual creative endeavor. Get writing!" MSCHF agrees to comply with any cease-and-desist orders that it receives, but it also points out that the collective is in a better position to fight corporate lawyers than independent creators, who are often dinged for smaller, more repairable transgressions thanks to the somewhat muddy copyright laws. "Independent creators can never fight real legal action with a corporation: they can’t afford it. Thus copyright falls into that category in which “if the penalty for a crime is monetary, that law exists only for the lower class.” As of this writing, MSCHF confirms that all shirts have sold out except Subway and Walmart. As of now, the collective is still waiting for its first cease-and-desist. UPDATE: MSCHF still hasn't received its first cease-and-desist, but one brand recognized an opportunity to poke a little fun at the moment. Subway responded with its own version of a mock Grand Prix shirt emblazoned with the MSCHF logo. "Two can play this game," the sandwich shop playful tweeted. "Hurry before @mschf shuts us down." Which shirt would you buy? https://twitter.com/subway/status/1485783404385902595?s=21 MSCHF Turns Taboo Investment Scheme Into a Chance to Win Cash With Online Game Tontine