The Canberra Liberals have been sent a legal threat over their advertisement riffing on the popular "Not Happy, Jan" ad.
The party was sent a cease and desist letter over the weekend from Thryv Australia, the entity responsible for marketing the Yellow Pages, claiming copyright infringement.
The ad was released earlier this month following the Liberals' widely publicised search for a Chief Minister Andrew Barr look-alike.
It is set in an office with a manager looking over some papers. The fake Mr Barr is sitting on a desk playing solitaire with a red top when the manager starts calling for him.
"Andrew, where's the affordable housing you promised in your budget," she says.
"Gosh! How many promises has he broken: one, two, three. And where's the stadium?"
"Mr Barr" proceeds to run out of the office as she continues through the list, prompting her to open the window and shout out: "Not happy, Andrew."
There is also a jingle of "Not happy, Andrew" accompanying the commercial.
The iconic ad from 2000 is also set in an office with an office manager expressing her disappointment with her employee, Jan, for not booking an ad in the upcoming edition of the Yellow Pages.
A letter from Thryv's lawyers, seen by The Canberra Times, accused the Canberra Liberals of copyright infringement and wanted the party to remove the ad on all platforms by 5pm on Monday. The ad remained online as of Tuesday afternoon.
Thryv's lawyers alleged the Liberals ad was not a parody or satire of the original advertisement. They said it could be misleading as it could suggest the political advertisement had the approval of Thryv.
"The conduct is damaging to Thryv's business and diminishes the value of the Thryv content and will limit the extend to which our client can use and adapt the Thryv content in its future advertising campaigns," the letter said.
Opposition Leader Elizabeth Lee said on Tuesday morning she had not seen the letter and would not comment on it. She did not think there was a problem with the commercial.
"The feedback that we had was that a lot of people knew it was a parody," she said.
"Everyone was very familiar with it, including people who are much younger and wouldn't have seen the original but everyone is familiar with the phrase and, certainly, we got a lot of good feedback on the ad."
It is not the first time an entity has faced legal threats over a remake of the commercial.
Darrell Lea was sent a cease and desist letter in 2019 over a commercial from Sensis. Thryv acquired Sensis in 2021.
"We are flattered that Darrell Lea has used our iconic Yellow Pages advertising, featuring 'Not Happy Jan'," the then Yellow executive general manager James Ciuffetelli said at the time.
"However, it has been used without our consultation or approval. To see the Yellow Pages brand, which is iconic and trusted by many Australians, and our beloved character Jan, used by another company for commercial gain is a total shock to us and our customers."
