Bakery suing Conway NH for $1 to keep a mural drawn by children up.
Bakery suing Conway NH for $1 to keep a mural drawn by children up.
A divide over a mural at a donut shop has led to a First Amendment fight for one New Hampshire man.
A bakery in Conway NH is suing the town after being told their mural violates advertising signage laws. It seems the sign just has pastries and doesn't otherwise advertise the business, so they're calling it art and arguing it should stay. The town disagrees so they're going to court over it.
The bakery is suing the town for $1, and permission to keep the kids mural up.
This is a small business fighting to keep kids art on display. Suing for $1 is a way to signal that are willing to do this at a financial loss, and that the display isn't a means of enriching themselves but rather their community.
It’s totally signage, but Jesus fucking Christ that town needs to calm down.
Nah, the signage is the triangle section. The back piece is a mural.
"We can't have all these colors, someone might feel an emotion looking at our strp mall strewn 'downtown'!"
I'm thinking the little circle with the name is their actual "sign" that is/was in compliance with the ordinance.
Pre-mural photos show a plain building, but the circle sign has shadow, which looks like it's separate from the mural but I'm not sure.
I'm pro n this mural. It looks fun, and if the local kids did it, they like it too, and it's their town as much as anyone's.
Gotta invent something to do until ski season is in full swing.
What the town should do is just require that all buildings have murals without branding. That town would be cool.
Yeah this could be a 1st Amendment issue, if such signage, if its contents were not "commercial", could otherwise be approved.
This isn't Uplifting News until they win.
Fuck, in this morality climate even someone trying is a welcome outlier
I don't know, I'll play devil's advocate. He says it was never advertising, it was art. Okay, let's say he's right. What about the Starbucks next door when they out branded coffees on their door? What about the shell station making "art" of themselves?
Was the Luxor in Vegas lining one side of the pyramid a Dorito advertising or art?
I'm not saying he's wrong at all, but I see the city's side. If they allow one, they have to allow everyone, and that means that every corporate entity will use the free
ad"art" spaceThis is a false equivalence. The content of the art discussed here has no labels or logos. As soon as you posit the existence of such content, IMO you are in a different conversation.
One could argue that sunburst pattern reflects the branding.
I think the town needs to stfu.
But, that sign could use more donuts.
If the Luxor didn't include the label Doritos on it then does that make it art?
If they allow one, they have to allow everyone
Oh! You haven't heard! We can tailor laws to do whatever we as society desire. So we could interpret this law to mean that signs drawn by children without any company logos count as art, and anything done by a paid artist or with logos is not.
Isn't that neat? :-D
I work in conjunction with small claim courts and it often surprises people how informal it can get. In the situation you describe the judge might just straight up tell Starbucks "You are a billion dollar company, the rules apply differently to you than to a small local business"
I agree, my comment was mostly so people could see that nuance, and I hope what you said is exactly what happens. The age old pornography law, I can't define it but I know it when I see it. Codifying it as art that does not explicitly advertise would be the way to go I think.
Yeah, I think this is an unfortunate situation, cause by the town. Because really, they're right, it definitely is advertisement. And now that there's a court case, they're going to be setting a precedent. So, while the art on this particular local business isn't harmful, and, imo, is good for the town, they now have to consider this ruling applied to all businesses, which includes places like Starbucks and McDonald's, that will absolutely abuse a decision in the local bakery's favor
Exactly. We all agree that the specific case definitely should be in their favor, but now it's going to be this whole thing. I think really the town should have given a single exemption for them, but now that they pushed it they risk everyone wanting to do it. Hey kids, come paint a mural for Starbucks (for free) showing how much fun it is to drink Starbucks!
Counterpoint: the spirit of the advertising law requiring you to put your name on the advertising is so you're not playing mind games with advertising. When you put up advertisement you're not allowed to hide that it was your advertisement. If you take up a billboard in town and say sheriff Jones is a lying sack of shit, It has to have that it was paid for by whatever foundation, and it can't be microscopic.
They are using this law in an attempt to keep a bakery from decorating the outside of their business with perfectly reasonable non-offensive imagery. The businesses sign is adequate and visible They are not trying to hide who they are.
My guess would be small town shenanigans and somebody pissed at somebody's Wheaties.
Laws Apply to EVERYONE? Someone needs to tell the US!
If you get kids to make it free, it’s art haha.
Corporations everywhere start drooling, fire artists, start day cares for new signage.
Oh is this one of those dystopian looking places that every building must look the same with no visual design?
idk if NH is exactly the same, but Vermont has pretty strict signage laws, the point is to prohibit billboards and similar sorts of things, and the effect is pretty nice. Just because you're in public and have eyes doesn't mean advertisers should have a right to your attention.
Exactly, overall it sounds like a great law to have on the books because fuck ads. But there are going to be edge cases like this. In this case the mural obviously shouldn't be considered an ad but that needs to be decided on a case by case basis in court which it sounds like is what is happening.
Whatever law it's breaking seems like a shitty law that shouldn't exist.
What's the law they violated and why are they in violation of it?
The law limits the size of advertizing displays. If the mural is considered an ad then it is too large. Over all it's probably a good law to have because nobody likes when the entire town is plastered with billboards, but there are going to be edge cases like this where it doesn't make sense.