I’ve just been reading about the Artist and writer Chris Riddell.
He wrote and published a book a number of years ago and it looks like the the advert by J. Lewis is copying.
I have seen the book and looked at the similarities and I must say it doesn’t look good for John Lewis. You can find more on Chris Riddel’s FB page.
This is the link to his page… https://www.facebook.com/authorchrisriddell/?fref=ts
Do the big companies ride roughshod over others or has someone tried to pass this off as an original piece of work or is it just a massive coincidence?
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I’ve not heard of him or seen his books before but I don’t have kids so I’m not up on kids authors/ books. Maybe whom ever at John Lewis came up with the idea is in the same position and its coincidence, maybe they are riding rough shod over him. I would hope now that it has been pointed out they would do the honest thing and pay him the appropriate licence fee, it would reflect very badly on them if they don’t.
I’ve had something on my blog basically copied by a famous designer a few years ago. I noticed it on the front cover of a new book that had just come out. I did put a post about how similar it looked to something I designed on my blog and others agreed. (I’ve since removed it after coming to an agreement). I contacted the company about it. Long story short, after emails back and to with the companies solicitor, I got money for what happened and when the book is reprinted (which I really doubt it with be after reading the reviews) I will be credited for that design.
Here’s the blog post my design is on http://everydaybitsandbobs.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/winter-house.html. I’ve been advised not to remove it as it shows when I posted it.
My Granddaughter loves Chris Riddels’s Goth Girl Books. I haven’t seen the ad, but Chris Riddel seems to think it’s a rip-off, so I would tend to support him, although monsters under the bed is an age-old theme…
When I first started on Folksy, there was someone here who successfully stopped River Island (I think) using her images…
I agree, the monster under bed idea wasn’t dreamt up by Chris Riddell. The monster in his book and in the advert are similar but if you asked a child to draw a monster, I think it would also look very similar - big, grey, lumpen, bit shrek-like 
There’s no excuse for this.
Whoever thought up the campaign in John Lewis’s creative agency should have googled to see whether they were producing anything similar to what is already out there. That’s pretty common practice in a reputable agency. They know all about copyright issues and would come down like a ton of bricks on businesses who copy their strapline or name etc. In fact, their Legal page on their website is quite categoric that you should not infringe their copyright…