DUKE University has taken issue with HBO’s hit show The White Lotus for an actor’s storyline while wearing a Blue Devils shirt.
Duke’s complaint comes as the men’s and women’s teams look to win their respective NCAA basketball titles in March Madness.
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HBO‘s dark comedy The White Lotus is currently in its third season, and a March 16 episode has frustrated Duke University.
With the show set at a resort in Thailand, the Ratliff family consists of a father and son who went to Duke and a mother and daughter who graduated in North Carolina.
The father, who’s played by England actor Jason Isaacs, starts to take drugs and contemplated suicide after learning about a criminal investigation to his home business.
The episode ends with Isaacs, while wearing a Duke t-shirt, writing a suicide note and putting a (stolen) gun to his head.
Read More on March Madness
Duke University shared its displeasure in a New York Times article published on Wednesday.
“Duke appreciates artistic expression and creative storytelling,” Duke spokesperson Frank Tramble told the outlet.
“But characters’ prominently wearing apparel bearing Duke’s federally registered trademarks creates confusion and mistakenly suggests an endorsement or affiliation where none exists.”
Tramble spoke to Front Office Sports and didn’t answer about whether the university will sue over the shirt, request to have episodes edited, or simply ask for an apology.
“Our only goal is to point out that all artists need to be mindful of the impact when they depict something as consequential as suicide with a college brand,” Tramble told FOS.
“We take mental health and suicide very seriously, and using any collegiate brand in this way trivializes a real and tragic problem.”
It’s not likely that Duke will win any hypothetical trademark complaint as the Times shared that two trademark lawyers told them that courts tend to side with artists in similar cases.
For example, Pepperdine asked a judge to block Netflix from broadcasting Running Point, a comedy program where actress Kate Hudson leads a basketball team named the Waves.
The school argued that the use of “Waves” was a “misappropriation of the university’s brand.”
But a judge declined to grant a temporary restraining order and the show is allowed to air.
If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text Crisis Text Line at 741741.
The lawsuit is still ongoing, however, but experts believe the college is unlikely to win.
The Duke spokesperson Tramble said to the Times that the White Lotus “uses our brand without permission” and “simply goes too far.”
Other than the drug abuse and contemplating suicide storyline, the Duke-alum father appears to have committed financial crimes.
And the son is a raging misogynist
Duke University’s grievances with The White Lotus come while the men’s college basketball team plays in the Sweet 16 versus Arizona on Thursday night.
The women’s team, meanwhile, plays UNC, its arch-rivals, on Friday.
HBU airs The White Lotus on Sunday nights.
