Weirdness: French Far-Right Political Party Uses Little Mac Lookalike On Campaign Poster

Can't imagine Ninty being too happy about this

Who's willing to bet the next Punch-Out!! game will be in France where you go around fighting unemployment, lies, corruption, immigration and insecurity, with a final boss battle against his evil twin brother?

Haha, will be taken down in 5... 4... 3....

Just looks photoshopped

Oh goody! Another poster lawsuit from Nintendo!

"Has been compared to Nazis by some critics".

So has everyone who's ever had an argument on the internet.

Is it just me or should little Mac's fist be facing the other way? Who throws a punch like that?

@Spoony_Tech
That's always bothered me too.

Hey look, a publicity stunt!

his name is probably Small Mark

"[...] features a boxer who is quite clearly based on the Punch-Out!! star."

It is not just "based on" the character, everything but the head is exactly the same!

@Mega719 I was about to say the same thing

I have no idea what this political party stands for, but they're apparently fans of Nintendo, so if I lived in France, they'd have my vote.

If they're gonna do tiny changes to Little Mac's look, they might as well at least add Glass Joe's head to Little Mac's body to make it somewhat unique.

Is this one at least an air-fighter?

Oh this should be fun~

Hold on, I literally just noticed that EVERYTHING about the characters are the same except for the hair style, ears, eyes and the coloring of the character in general. It's not even a different face! Or even different jaw or eyes!

@EonCow I'd pay for it! I'd especially pay for the privilege to punch politicians in the face.

Not as cute as the original though.

That's not just similar. They had to have edited the original image to make it look that similar.

Oh the joys of Photoshop....

Looks like if Little Mac and Glass Joe somehow had a kid.

@TheWPCTraveler At least you have valid arguments
You know, most critics are plain and simple haters, against everything and everyone, with no clue what they are talking about.

@Einherjar Thank you.

...yeah, I should stay away from politics.

Bet the graphic designer still got paid.

@Einherjar Now if only Scotland had got independence then we could have helped out more.

@TheWPCTraveler I'm German :/

@manu0 I apologize for any misunderstanding, I got carried away. Just a bit.
I blame your government.

@TheWPCTraveler As do I, lol. That's how I understood you.

I always prefer find it really cringeworthy when politicians use popular characters in their campaigns. It's just as cringeworthy as when they try to say something cool.

I am not sticking up for this party at all, but I'm not too sure this counts as copyright infringement... It's clear this was redrawn from the original image (I couldn't find any blatant areas of copy paste) but if you make enough changes to the drawing... it's legal I believe?

Look at the nose (different angle) the eyes (different width) etc etc

I wonder if the political party even knows this is a plagiarized image. The commissioned artist probably didn't bother telling them, and I doubt most politicians are Nintendo fanatics who would recognize the rip-off.

That is both disturbing and weird.

@TheWPCTraveler Not at all. You see, im fully aware that the current situation is the literal "highway to hell". But im a person who thinks of the people first, country later.
And i actually helped out at the borders and saw familys arriving here in nothing but underwear. Why ? because they tradet their cloths so their children had something to eat, no joke.

But this crisis needs people like you, intelligent critics.
It cant be solved by politics or empathy alone. It needs a solid mixture of both. And thus, we need both sides, pro and contra

@themightyboost if you concentrate on the head only, then your suggestion may hold water, but if you look at the rest of the body - it's a like for like match (ignoring the colours)... So I don't think any amount of artistic licence would cover that one...
Although in fairness I think Ninty would be more peeved at the political association (especially if the group holds extreme views) rather than the image copying

@SuperWiiU Comming from germany, where racism reached a new "high", i still think you have to differentiate.
There are racist critics and then there are critics who look at the situation from a purely financial / economical standpoint.
Such a crisis can very well ruin an entire nation, dry out its funds and topple its work infrastructure etc.
And we actually need those critics. Like i said above, such a crisis needs both view points to reach a middleground that helps everyone. Pure empathy only gets you so far. Its nó good to invite massive numbers of refugees only to ruin the country to a point, where it cant even sustain these masses.
You need to find a delicate ballance.

This makes me laugh. You can tell it was redrawn since a few parts are very slightly different but its obvious they were tracing Little Mac. xD

I wonder what Nintendo will do when they see this...

Nintendolife, please contact to Nintendo so they can demand this people.

I can't comment on the French far-right political party Front National since I don't live in EU or follow their politics, but make that look alike hair more blond and I think Donald Trump can use it.

stupid Front National,

that is all.

I'm amused that the knockoff is only one letter away (give or take an accent) from punching out Chrom. That's closer than the real deal got!

Wow, cheeky.

Original character. Do not steal!

Sorry i wanted to say that. XD

Seeing "immigration", I'm compelled to dump a couple video links here, the first from Kurzgesagt (or "In a Nutshell", as they've dual-branded), which addresses economic viability from the situation; the second a segment from John Oliver's Last Week Tonight, which more addresses the reactions of countries to the situation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvOnXh3NN9w
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umqvYhb3wf4

I, however, am not informed enough to have much strong opinion other than sympathies.

If anybody needs to be sued. Its these guys. Thats just lazy.

Please let's not get too far down into politics.

I deleted and edited several messages, they weren't all necessarily bad or provocative, but they could still lead to an ugly situation.

@Morpheel
dude why you delete my message.i think its good to have opinions from people that are actuly active in radical political movements instead of only people that read stuff about it in the papers.i will be silent from now on,dont worry nut dont post storys like this if you cant handle te responses.for me and lots of other people in europe this is a verry verry sensitive topic

@Morpheel Well, you all DID post a direct political reference, and Nintendo Life has this recent habit going on right now of delving into political commentary (e.g. the propoganda brick wall in Russia), so this comment progression is only natural.

@PlywoodStick I haven't posted anything. Well, except for this.

And the previous message.

Ha copyright infringement at its finest.

Is that Little Mac's evil brother?

soooooo this damien dude posts a story.people talk about politics.some other dude from nintendolife starts to delete comments.and blahblahblah.what a mess.the day nintendolife screwed up big.remember:)

@Morpheel I mean the article itself.

Remember the meme of little mac for smash that started when Shulk was leaked and people said he was just a photo shopped Little Mac? In this case this is true.

Okay, now THIS is when you go after a group for copyright infringement. This isn't just a little party, this is a big, aggressive campaign scheme. In other words, there's BIG MONEY trading hands, with this Little Mac ripoff in the midst of their advertising campaigns. This type of advertisement is sickening, it's like a cartoon version of a 1930s Nazi Olympian. I would have thought the French would see such a portrayal as taboo... Amazing how time makes people forget such things.

These Neo-Nazi austerity suckers could use a drain on their ill-gotten funding anyways. Sic em, lawyers!

@Lilith93 if you think this is the biggest "screw up" ever, you must be new to the site.

@PlywoodStick oh, well they can post any article they want. The rules still apply for the community though. This was more of a preventive thing, people were still being mostly cordial, but letting politic discussion grow unwatched is risky. Specially when it involves the topics some of the people here were starting to discuss.

@Morpheel
haha,sorry man.politics make me act like a fool:)
have a nice evening.im out.yoooooooo

Politics, religion and war are a part of our world. Therefore an influence on our culture, and in turn influence our games. It may be a necessary evil in some of these conversations.

If they don't make a poster comparing their political rivals to Glass Joe, I'm gonna be disappointed.

@Not_Soos They may not of known it was based off of a game character and the artist they hired just used him for tracing. Even if they did like Nintendo and tryed to get fans to become members, many Nintendo fans seem to be upset at the use of Little Mac's likeness and would just hate the party more. Also, Nintendo is one of the biggest fandoms on Tumblr, whose users are very left-winged. So those people would hate this party to begin with.

@Damo: And you're just giving that far-right-wing party free publicity with this article? Why? Why are you supporting them instead of just ignoring it and letting no one know of their terrible ad campaign? I don't get it.
These kinds of articles are exactly what those kind of parties are aiming for. They use a lookalike of an established character, knowing that this will get them into trouble, but also give them a lot of media attention.
So by publishing this article you're basically supporting them.

I'm not amused.

@Not_Soos So you're saying if a modern Hitler would've stated that he's a Nintendo fan, you would vote for him? Seriously?! Just so you know, that comparison is accurate, since Front National are plain French Nazis.

@Spoony_Tech
Boxers twist their fist as they punch. The intention is to cause extra abrasion on contact with the opponent's face, which can eventually cause cuts.

@NTELLIGENTMAN that was the Pokemon company not Nintendo. They are separate things. Nintendo most likely was unaware until uninformed people like yourself attacked their Twitter

@shani
Do you know what far-right means? It means a bare bones government. People govern themselves in a literal sense. Institutions are basically unfunded and aren't taxed.

Hitler was far left. Genocide and Dictatorships derive from the government being the center of one's focus. The government was everything.

Poor Little Mac!

@Spoony_Tech Looks like a corkscrew punch to me.

@shani Normally, that might be the case, but if Nintendo sues them, the party may be seen as pursuing petty interests in the midst of a campaign. If they get sued, it could help slow them down.

@JakeOfAllTrades Fascism is a mix of authoritarian philosophies incorporated together to enhance a militarized economy, it's not soley left or right. It's a misnomer to assume it's entirely focused on one or the other. (Though most who espouse it, such as this party, are almost invariably extremely right wing.) It's also a misnomer to say institutions would be unfunded; they would be the benefactors of a revolving door of corporate welfare supported by the state- the right wing version of social welfare.

For example, multiple people from an institution had to put together this graphic design ripping off Little Mac to advertise this party. That institution would receive the benefit of those who employed them, with extra favors from the government (especially those appointed to the judicial branch by the party) in exchange for benefitting the political party; even defending the institution if they do something wrong. (E.g. copyright infringement)

@EonCow Hahahahaha

@JakeOfAllTrades lol, how the hell was Hitler far-left, are you joking? Just because they called themselves "national socialists" (it was only a name and doesn't have anything to do with Socialism) doesn't mean they were not right extremists. Do you even know what far-right means?
@Damo: I don't mean actively supporting them, but it gives them attention, despite your good intentions. Basically what I'm saying is: don't feed the trolls (metaphorically).
I know how coverage works, I didn't say you (or the news reporter in your example) are in favour of what they're doing. But coverage always means attention, too. And in cases of a greater threat (like if the far-right would attack foreigners like it is happening in Germany or basically say they will attack them, like the Hungarian prime minister did), I would agree that it needs to be covered. But I doubt that this Front National ad will affect anyone that doesn't live in France or has the right to vote in the French election (unless the NL userbase is heavily France-dominated), so I would rather let it out so they don't get attention.
@PlywoodStick: One the one hand I would approve of Nintendo sueing them, but on the other hand this can also give them attention. Hopefully it's only negative attention. But unfortunately, FN is really strong in France for a long time now.

@shani

I already told you, so be it. Right is lack of governing forces, Left is a choke-hold of governing forces.

Nintendo is going to sue the French now

@Spoony_Tech
Technically there is a strike like that in Shaolin Kung Fu (which I teach) called a rolling hammer strike but it would never, ever be practical in the sport of boxing. Lol. So good point!

@JakeOfAllTrades I'm sorry, but that's not a sufficient definiton of right and left in politics. It may be they way some people in the US conceive it, but it's still not the general definition of right and left in politics.

Maybe you should first get your facts straight instead of just claiming something that you might have heard somewhere. But since you're only 15, I'm lenient towards you. You can still learn what those terms really mean. I guess you could start with Wikipedia...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-wing_politics
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left-wing_politics

Both left and right wing have a huge span that can go from moderate into extreme, so it's impossible to reduce both to a few words.
But one could go with - and this is directly from Wikipedia- this:

"Left-wing politics are political positions or activities that accept or support social equality, often in opposition to social hierarchy and social inequality. They typically involve concern for those in society who are perceived as disadvantaged relative to others and a belief that there are unjustified inequalities that need to be reduced or abolished.
The term was later applied to a number of movements, especially republicanism during the French Revolution in the 18th century, followed by socialism, communism and anarchism in the 19th and 20th centuries. Since then, the term left-wing has been applied to a broad range of movements including civil rights movements, feminist movements, anti-war movements, and environmental movements, as well as a wide range of parties."

"Right-wing politics are political positions or activities that view some forms of social stratification or social inequality as either inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically defending this position on the basis of natural law, economics or tradition. Hierarchy and inequality may be viewed as natural results of traditional social differences and/or from competition in market economies.
Although the right-wing originated with traditional conservatives, monarchists and reactionaries, it has evolved to include neo-conservatives, authoritarians, nationalists, fascists, racial supremacists, Christian democrats, religious fundamentalists, and classical liberals."

So you see, fascsts and racists like Hitler and the Nazis are the most extreme type of right-wing.

@Dezzy But you do realize the comparison of FN and Nazis is accurate? Comparing people's opinions in a discussion with Hitler is just an analogy to build up an argument, it's not a direct comparison. But it is a direct comparison when comparing real extreme right wing parties like FN with the Nazis, it's because they're basically the same. FN isn't something like the US Republicans, they are harmless compared to FN. Front National is actually more like the Nazis, only not so powerful (yet).

When i saw that yesterday (i'm French BTW), i first wondered how can the designer of this think for a minute this will go unnoticed... (i believe far-right wings people don't think too much and too deep, but still...).

@Damo @shani is just not used to your rather neutral reporting. You see, in Germany almost every article in the main stream press about anything remotely right-wing is heavily biased, sometimes even being more like a comment from the journalist than a report (w/o being classified as such).

@manu0 So FN is only remotely right-wing in your opinion? You should research that, maybe then you understand my argument. There is a difference between right-wing (nothing bad per se, the CDU is right wing for example) and right-extremists. And FN is known for being extreme since Marie le Pen's father was the party leader.
Besides, belittlement is exactly what makes such extreme parties even stronger (happened before in history).

I don't get what this has to do with neutral reporting. @Damo's article was in fact neutral, nobody said otherwise. I was just pointing out that it still helps them by giving them unnecessary attention, like it's something funny or unimportant that has happened there. Right extremists shouldn't be treated lightly in my opinion.

@shani I never said that about FN, so don't put words in my mouth.
I'm sure you wouldn't criticise the article if he would've written it a lot more critical regarding FN.

@manu0 Ah ok, I apologize, it sounded liked that because someone else before you already played down FN.

Yes, the article almost comes off as a bit too trivial, but that was not my main concern.
Even if it was more critical, I would still criticise it, because my point is not whether the article is critical enough or not. My point is that it gives them unnecessary attention on NL, no matter how critical the article is. After all, "there is no bad PR".

@shani Well, I guess so. But then it seems like you want to live in a world were nothing about organisations, that you think are bad, is reported anymore just to avoid giving them attention. And that's really not what freedom of the media is about. Reporting only about organisations that you think are good sounds like a dictatorship to me, lol (which I'm sure is not what you want). 'cause then who's to decide which organisations to report about and which not?

@shani There's a difference between a report saying "hey FN used Little Mac on their poster, so that means they're great and you should all vote for them! " and "FN used Little Mac on their poster".
You just have to rely on people's intelligence to not vote for them. It's hard, but that's how democracy works, man. Democracy isn't easy, dictatorship is easy.

@manu0: No of course not, that would be terrible. Of course the media should have freedom (like the freedom to post this article), but I also have the freedom of criticising it.
I would just make the distinction of whether it does something good or not.
If a party/country or whatever is (trying to) surpressing/attacking minorities (like Orbán, Pegida or all the asylums that get attacked in Germany on a regular basis) and there is imminent danger, of course the media should cover it. Though I think this is more suited to general news sites or politics-centered ones.
But when FN abuses Little Mac for campaigning purposes, their only goal is to get attention. They provoke on purpose. Why give them exactly what they want?

Besides, I doubt that NL is the right platform for it. I just feat that since NL is not a politics-centered site, people won't take it seriously (because who goes on NL to read about something really serious?).

@manu0: On your second post, I'd like to extend what your wrote:

There's a difference between a report saying [1] "hey FN used Little Mac on their poster, so that means they're great and you should all vote for them! " and [2] "FN used Little Mac on their poster" and [3] just leaving it out completely. From those three options, NL did the second and I don't see what good it does. I think option 3 would be the best.

Anyway, when I wrote my initial post, It wasn't my intention to start such a big discussion about such a small thing. It just creates more clicks and buzz and that's exactly what I didn't want. So I won't bother it anymore.

@shani "I would just make the distinction of whether it does something good or not."
Well, who should decide that?
The question whether news like this should appear on NL is an entirely different one And on that I agree with you, I don't think it should.
But hey, Nintendo is serious business!

@shani It was a joke...