Big Candy v The Artist: Whittaker’s upset at replica K Bar wrappers
An oversized art print of a K Bar wrapper is not okay with the makers of the iconic candy.
Whittaker’s has set a June 30 deadline for the artist to destroy any of his hand-scrunched and enlarged replicas of the famous fruity toffee bar’s packaging.
In a letter to artist Simon Lewis-Wards, the company said it was “flattered” its packaging was being used, but took the protection of intellectual property rights “very seriously”. It claimed the art prints — selling for about $1500 each — was trade mark infringement and a breach of the Fair Trading Act.
Legal letters began in January.
Whittaker’s told the Weekend Herald it now recognised the art was meant to celebrate something quintessentially Kiwi, rather than to appropriate a trademark. “But it is important that we protect our trademarks without exception . . . however well-intentioned.”
Lewis-Wards says he sought advice from an intellectual property lawyer before starting on the print series. He agreed there had been some “to-ing and fro-ing”, but the matter had been settled amicably.
“I don’t need to destroy anything, because it’s all sold.”
The limited edition series includes 20 works in each of the six K Bar flavours — raspberry, lime, orange, lemon, blackberry and pineapple. Lewis-Wards, who is most famous for his cast-glass jet plane lollies, had initially planned to make sculptural glass K Bars.
“And then I was like, ‘ok, I need to make the wrapper’ . . . once I wrapped it round the glass piece and took it off, it was one of those things where you’re just like, ‘oh, this is just really cool by itself’.”
Lewis-Wards says artists have always drawn from popular culture.
“Look, for instance, at Andy Warhol, right, and the Campbell’s Soup Cans? When I did the K Bars, I was like ‘oh, I’m going to make New Zealand’s Campbell’s Soup Cans’. It’s an ode to the K Bar. It’s not like I’m trying to make lollies here.
“I copy things and I mess with scale . . . and I leave the legal stuff up to my lawyer,” the artist says.
Currently preparing for his first solo show (Sugar Rush, opening at New Plymouth’s Kina Gallery on April 16) the artist began making glass lollies a decade ago because their sculptural form appealed. He says the public response has been more about nostalgia.
“I didn’t realise how strong people’s feelings were towards their favourite candies. People are just invested in this stuff way more than I would have imagined.”
He plans to display oversized sculpted glass K Bars at his show. While his jet plane works draw on early childhood memories, the new works are more about the high school tuck shop.
“I think K Bars were 20c? . . . You could make it last all lunchtime.”
Whittaker’s has made K Bars since the 1950s. It said it appreciated “the time, skill and resource that the artist has put into creating these artworks” and believed a mutually satisfactory outcome had been reached — it had initially requested no print sales past April 30, but had agreed to a two-month extension.
“We have communicated that we are happy for him to sell the remainder of the prints that he has already created so that he is not disadvantaged, in return for an undertaking from him not to create any more of these prints.”