"The Trump administration's penchant for announcing or celebrating its various dumbass policies via pop culture video game memes marches on, it seems. We talked about this sort of thing previously when the administration built an ICE recruitment video to mimic the intro to the cartoon show (gotta catch 'em all... get it?), as well as ICE recruiting memes utilizing imagery from the series of games (aliens... get it?)."
"But because they couldn't be bothered to lift a finger over what is a pretty clear infringement of their trademarks and/or copyright, the administration was emboldened and has done it again. This time it's in service of announcing something more tame, the reintroduction of whole milk into schools. And the administration did so by mocking up an image from beloved farming sim Stardew Valley."
The administration has repeatedly used pop-culture video game imagery and memes to announce or celebrate policies, including previous ICE recruitment content that echoed well-known franchises. Major game companies did not respond to earlier apparent infringements, which arguably encouraged further uses. An apparent AI-generated mock-up of Stardew Valley featuring Trump was used to promote reintroducing whole milk into schools. The image raises questions of trademark and copyright infringement and whether the game developer Concerned Ape will object. Observers also identified a deliberate easter-egg in the image's money counter referencing contested presidential numbering.
Read at Above the Law
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