This Instagram cartoonist has accused Domino's of plagiarising her comic
A popular Instagram artist has accused Domino's Pizza of plagiarism after one of their official Facebook pages posted a cartoon that closely resembled the artist's own work.
Weinye Chen is a 30-year-old cartoonist based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. At the time of writing she has around 123,000 followers on Instagram.
In September 2017, in response to that super viral Distracted Boyfriend meme, Chen shared the following cartoon on social media:
On Sunday, she returned to Instagram to post about the cartoon once again. But this time the context was very different.
One of Chen's Spanish-speaking followers had stumbled across the post screengrabbed above on the official Domino's Chile Facebook page. They then contacted Chen through Instagram to tell her about it.
"I was shocked at first," Chen told Mashable. "I've had my work plagiarised before but usually by small, random social media accounts or unknown websites. Nothing like this. This has been my biggest encounter yet.
"I was frustrated but I wasn't angry. I was more determined to get to the bottom of the matter so that I could resolve it as soon as possible."
Once Chen had seen the post, she shared the screengrabs on her Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages. Her post ended up going viral.
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That last screenshot appears to show the official Domino's Pizza Chile Facebook page responding to someone who had pasted Chen's artwork in the comments.
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The response reads "memes son memes" -- which translates as "memes are memes" -- followed by what appears to be the "woman shrugging" emoji.
People on Twitter weren't impressed.
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Soon, memes were being used against Domino's.
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"I knew I needed as much support as I could get as I've never been in this position before," Chen explained. "There have been many other cases where big corporations have stolen artwork from indie artists and most of the time, the cases never get resolved, leaving the artists defenceless and helpless. So, I was really concerned about that."
Initially, Chen received nothing but silence from the pizza corporation. But after she'd posted online, the digital agency that work for Domino's Chile deleted their post and reached out to her.
Chen says they've now come to an agreement.
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"They have been very courteous, understanding and cooperative thus far," Chen said. "However, we are in the midst of finalising everything so I'd rather not say anything until it is a done deal. I will keep everyone updated through my social media platforms."
Mashable has reached out to Domino's for comment.
UPDATE: Feb. 28, 2018, 11:43 a.m. GMT A spokesperson for Domino's responded to say that their master franchisee for Chile has reached out to the artist directly and they have amicably resolved the issue.
Chen has also shared the following statement:
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Topics Comics
