A Massachusetts based Ford dealership wanted to let people know that they were offering huge savings to everyone signed up to their mailing list. So, Quirk Ford sent out emails for their "Freedom Sales Event" that used some pretty familiar art.
Earlier this year, Camp Santo released their first-person adventure game, Firewatch, on the PS4 and PC. The game told the story of a fire lookout during the aftermath of the Yellowstone fires of 1988, the largest wildfire in recorded history for Yellowstone.
Seeing as the game was about a national park being burnt down, the game's key art featured a forest and a lookout tower in varying hazes of orange.
This key art was not intended to be used elsewhere, but Firewatch fan noticed that Quirk Ford had used it for their advertisements.
Ahh, remember when Henry and Delilah were excited about the Ford Freedom Sales Event? #ripoffexpress @camposanto pic.twitter.com/kF5wZnH1ZT
— Panic Inc (@panic) June 27, 2016
Campo Santo's co-founder caught the tweet from Panic Inc and shared his thoughts on the subject:
Come on down to the Quirk Ford Freedom Sales event where ur free from such things as "copyright" and "infringement!" https://t.co/78HMQdyJqy
— Sean Vanaman (@vanaman) June 27, 2016
The Ford dealer quickly apologized for taking the art and using it:
.@Ford was not involved in creating the Quirk Ford advertising. We regret the error and to would like to issue an apology to @camposanto
— Quirk Auto Dealers (@QuirkCars) June 28, 2016
Noticing that the ad meant a copyright infringement obviously meant Quirk would take down the ad, but apparently that doesn't mean Ford would take down the video that uses it too.
