Like a lot of Americans who are not supporters of the previous Presidential administration I was quite amused to read the story of how Louis Tussaud’s Waxworks museum in San Antonio had been forced to remove its wax figure of our previous President from public display. According to the story on the San Antonio Current website, the company was concerned about the figure taking any further damage because visitors to the museum keep punching it in the face. A host of sarcastic remarks, a few of which might be considered outright gloating, went streaming through my mind, but then it occurred to me that the company may be overlooking a new business opportunity that is right under their collective nose…
Even a cursory glance at the news from the last two months should suggest to any alert observer that there are many people in this country who would quite like to punch the actual 45th President of the United States in the face, but are unable to do so because such an activity is both illegal and also likely to result in being shot repeatedly by Secret Service agents. Punching a wax figure would likely not be as satisfying, but it would be much safer. If the figure was sufficiently life-like the museum could offer action photography, color or black-and-white, of guests apparently punching the former President in the face, although video would be problematic in the sense that it would not accurately simulate the sound of the punch landing or the action of an actual person falling to the floor after being punched…
Having reached that conclusion, it occurred to me that this would only scratch the surface of such a new business model. Tussaud’s Waxworks can, in theory, produce life-sized effigies of virtually any known person, living or dead, of whom a sufficiently detailed photograph exists. This means that, potentially, they could sell anyone the opportunity to punch the image of any person who affronts them in the face, along with a set of glossy photographs either printed on-site or captured on disc for future reproduction. And, unlike a photoshopped image, these pictures would not show any signs of digital tampering, because, of course, they would not have been falsified in any way…
Whether or not such a service would be feasible from a legal standpoint is less clear. Public figures have less control over the fair usage of their name and image than most private citizens do, and just allowing people to punch an effigy of someone in the face does not introduce any particular claims about that someone. One could easily imagine a court ruling against a business which had chosen to display a wax figure of the 45th President in a compromising position with one or more of the dictators with whom he was known for currying favor, for example, or an effigy of our ex-President with his head emerging from the digestive tract of an animal, but explaining what material harm is caused to any individual by allowing customers to punch his three-dimensional image in the head would be harder to accomplish…
Some municipalities within the United States have laws against using pictures of actual people as targets for pistol or rifle shooting, and if San Antonio has one it could be argued that such a ban should extend to any simulated act of violence against any individual, no matter how obviously simulated it might be. Alternately, one might imagine cities, counties or states passing laws that would render acts of simulated violence against one or more classes of people illegal in that jurisdiction, for reasons of decorum, public safety, or inappropriate use of wax works. And, I suppose, it is possible that such a service would be cost-prohibitive, or require a price-point too high to attract a sufficient number of customers. But, on the other side of the issue, it might also be possible for the company to produce a more life-like effigy, e.g. one that would look, feel, or even sound much more like a real person when being punched in the face…
If so, I really hope that someone at Louis Tussaud’s Waxworks gets started on these improved models straight away – because I can think of a number of public and historical figures I would be willing to pay to punch in the face…
And I don’t believe that I’m the only one who would…
No comments:
Post a Comment