The threat of negative press can make for a powerful negotiating tool, as a former East Atlanta resident learned after successfully taking on the world's second-largest clothing retailer -- -with a powerful assist from social media.
The saga began last month, when friends directed amateur folk artist Tori LaConsay, now living in Birmingham, to products sold on H&M's UK website that featured a design strikingly similar to one she created in 2008.
LaConsay's utilitarian creation, featuring "You Look Nice Today" painted in black letters on a white canvas with a red heart in the corner, originally appeared on a sign on East Atlanta's main thoroughfare, Flat Shoals Road.
Now, the image was showing up on H&M floor mats and pillow cases -- minus any credit or compensation for the artist.
A friend put LaConsay in contact with the art blog regretsy, which posted pictures of LaConsay's sign and the H&M products, along with the company's initial denials they had pilfered the 31-year-old's design.
"I thought, ‘That's not exactly honest,' LaConsay said after the company insisted in an email their design was not influenced by her work. Her friends were more upset, and so, apparently, were thousands of artists and others who flooded H&M with complaints.
"They were like, ‘If you don't say something, we will,'" she said.
Responding to the criticism, H&M addressed the controversy on its Facebook page late last month, saying the company "was merely inspired, after seeing many different varieties with different text messages, to create something similar in a different font, with the use of big and small brackets and the placement of the shaped heart."
"We are truly sorry if we have led someone to believe that we intentionally ... copied someone else's creation," the post read.
LaConsay and her supporters were not pacified, and the company -- which debuted a massive U.S. advertising campaign on Super Bowl Sunday -- agreed Saturday to accommodate LaConsay's modest demands, according to the artist's lawyer.
"Our leverage was bad press," said attorney John Seay, who said he negotiated a "creative settlement" with H&M. Representatives of the company did not respond to requests from the AJC seeking comment.
LaConsay said the retailer has agreed to contribute $3,000 toward a surgery for her best friend's dog while also donating the remainder of profits generated by the "You Look Nice Today" items to charitable organizations.
"I am especially pleased that this agreement respectfully honors the true intent behind the original artwork, offering a message of love, compassion and community," LaConsay said in a statement. "Additionally, I am heartened and vindicated in my belief that given the chance and support, that people want to do the right thing."
H&M will discontinue the line, Seay told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Now, LaConsay is fielding licensing offers for her design to appear on T-shirts and other products.
"Without social media, this would've never happened," said LaConsay, who works as a graphic designer.
She told the AJC the whole episode has left her wondering why she ever left East Atlanta.
"It really means something to me that people had taken some ownership in this sign and the positivity it conveyed," she said. "It's made me really, really miss my friends and neighbors there."
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