Todd Goldman

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Todd Harris Goldman is an American entrepreneur/artist. He is the founder of David and Goliath, a merchandise company which produces clothing, posters and other merchandise featuring a variety of slogans. According to the Wall Street Journal, the sales volume of David and Goliath was US$ 90 million in 2004.

[edit] Career

Goldman achieved some notoriety for "boy-bashing" slogans including "Boys are stupid, throw rocks at them!," which is featured on t-shirts, bumper stickers, and other accessories sold by "David and Goliath". In 2005 he authored a book of the same name (ISBN 0-7611-3593-6) which was also translated into Russian.

Goldman has been the target of criticism for his marketing and slogans. In 2004, Los Angeles based radio host and men's rights activist Glenn Sacks initiated a campaign against the "Boys are Stupid..." T-shirts claiming that they were part of a general societal mood that stigmatized and victimized boys.^[1] The campaign led to the line of shirts being pulled from several thousand retailers across the United States in 2005.

Goldman was named as number 97 on Bernard Goldberg's 2005 list of 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America. Goldberg also criticized Goldman's slogans for being part of what he called a boy-bashing craze, in which the makers of related products do not realize (or do not care) that young men have higher rates of depression and suicide than young girls in America. Goldman responded to the criticism, stating that he "hopes to be ranked higher next year."^[2]

In October 2007 Goldman released the book "Girls Are Weirdos But They Smell Pretty!"

[edit] Accusations of plagiarism

In April 2007, Goldman was accused of plagiarism by webcartoonist Dave "Shmorky" Kelly, in a post on the Something Awful forums,^[3] claiming that Goldman's piece "Dear God Make Everyone Die" was traced directly from a 2001 Purple Pussy comic by Kelly.

Purple Pussy comic strip for September 19, 2001, by Dave Kelly.

"Dear God Make Everyone Die," by Todd Goldman.

In response, Goldman has stated, "I made a judgment error and did not research the background of this particular submission. My intention was not to copy Mr. Kelly." He stated that he would issue a formal apology as well as donate the proceeds of the sale of the piece to Kelly or a charity of his choice; Kelly reported that he has received Goldman's apology. Since Kelly's initial accusation, other bloggers and webcartoonists have joined in criticizing Goldman, saying he has taken characters and ideas from other works, such as from T-shirts designed by Jim Benton and the computer program Neko. Goldman denies these allegations.^[4]^[5]

On May 3, 2007, Goldman's publicity agent announced that Goldman (who initially dismissed the controversy as "false accusations and blogging" in the contact with the media) and Kelly had reached a settlement: Goldman would pay Kelly the money he earned from the paintings and Kelly would drop the case. However, Goldman's art dealer said that several art galleries stopped showing Goldman's work and the wholesalers who buy Goldman's posters canceled their orders and asked for refunds for unsold stock. "I lost the three biggest poster distributors in America," his art dealer, Jack Solomon, said.^[5]