Mediaboss Marketing

Pepe the Frogs creator is planning on reclaiming his character from the alt right and there are a lot of ordinary citizens willing to help him.

According to his Kickstarter page, Furie wants to take Pepe back to the days when he was a blissfully stoned frog who enjoyed a simple life of snacks, soda and pulling his pants all the way down to go pee. He also wants to decouple the characters image from the meme whostuck around the internet long enough to become an institutionally recognized hate mascot, an experience that Furie describes as a nightmare.

He adds, We understand theres no way to fully control the internet or how people decide to use Pepe the Frog. Trying to control that would be a completely unreasonable goal. That said, the aim of this project is to positively resurrect Pepe through the creation of a brand new comic in the spirit of the original BOYS CLUB.

As of the time of this writing, Furies Kickstarter campaign has received more than 300 backers and raised more than $20,000, despite setting an initial goal of only $10,000. It still has 20 days left before expiring.

In order to begin the process of taking Pepe back, Furie drew a cartoon last month which depicted the character as dead and at a wake. He wasnt coy about his ultimate intentions, saying at the time that once we get the money together, were going to do it [the comic book] from scratch and that he hoped to gain some entrepreneurial control over a character whose image and message had been seized from its creator.

See the rest here:
Pepe the Frog's creator raises $20000 to reclaim him from the alt-right - Salon

Frog and Toad. Kermit. Froggie da Gremlin. The protagonist of Frogger. The Bud! Weis! Er! trio. If green amphibians in pop culture have one thing in common, its that theyre generally pretty benevolent, and want to be your friend. But the past year or so might have put that to the test. Matt Furies Pepe the frog was intended to be just as benevolenta stoner frog with the catchphrase Feels good man, known primarily for putting his pants down around his ankles to urinate. But somewhere in Internet Message BoardLand, he became coopted. These many months later, Furie is Kickstarting an effort to bring Pepe back to the light side.

Its unclear exactly how and whyPepe became synonymous withsuchtoxicity. To web-savvy Republican voters, he became a symbol of Donald Trumps Make America Great Again campaign. To online trolls, he was used as a symbol of ironic bigotryto get a rise out of the supposed politically correct. In absolute worst cases, he was adopted by white supremacists and racists, inserted into memes that were deliberately hateful toward particular groups. The one thing all these uses had in common is that none of them represented the wishes or the spirit of Pepes creator.

Furies initial reaction was to try to ignore the misuse of his character; when that didnt work, he killed him off in a comic strip. But the memes continued regardless, so henow has decided to take back his creation, Kickstarting a new comic that will return the character to being a universal symbol for peace, love, and acceptance.

The campaign has already achieved its desiredfunding, but if youd like to get some official Pepe artwork, an enamel pin, signed drawings, or even a character in the book named after you, there are still 25 days left to do so as of this writing.

Can the fun-loving frog become a prince of a persona again? Croak out some comments below and tell us what you think.

Featured Image: Matt Furie

Original post:
Pepe the Frog's Creator is Working to Bring Him Back to the Side of Peace - Nerdist

Artist Matt Furie attempts to regain control of controversial croaker associated with Trump and the 'alt-right'

THE creator of the infamous Pepe the Frog character thats been plastered across news channels since the 2016 United States presidential election is trying to reclaim him from the internet.

Artist Matt Furie has launched a bid to rebrand his creation as a symbol of love, peace and acceptance after it was described as an emblem of racism and intolerance.

Several left-wing publications have spread the claim that Pepe the Frog is purely a white supremacist icon.

Pepe was once considered so innocuous that Katy Perry tweeted a picture of him out back in 2014.

A year before the election, Donald Trump even tweeted a picture of himself rendered as Pepe the Frog, which had already been a mainstream internet meme at that point.

This controversial amphibian rose to infamy during the last US election when supporters of Trump hailing from the internet forum 4chan embraced the character as their mascot.

But following one-sided descriptions of the character as a white supremacist meme by websites like Salon, Slate, and Vox, the US-based Anti-Defamation League eventually designated Pepe a hate symbol.

Companies were then criticised for using the image, with the burger chain Wendys facing backlash for tweeted out the character from its logo made up to look like the frog.

Pepes creator is a proud supporter of Hillary Clinton and was reportedly furious to see his character turned into a hate symbol, as Pepe is most often referred to by the progressive left.

Furie tried (and failed) to reclaim Pepe by killing him and drawing him dead in an open casket.

This is an effort to rebrand Pepe the Frog as a symbol of love, peace and acceptance.

Few people noticed, but Pepes more extreme fans responded by radicalising Furies other creations into the most shocking caricatures they could possibly imagine.

The frog was rendered a neo-Nazi, ISIS zealot and even Adolf Hitler.

But to the Kekistani community on the Internet, which comprises of self-proclaimed s***posters across the political spectrum, Pepe stands as a symbol as against political correctness and progressive social justice.

With his efforts to kill Pepe the Frog in shambles, Furie is making a second attempt to reclaim the character from right-wing trolls by reimagining him for a new audience.

This is an effort to rebrand Pepe the Frog as a symbol of love, peace and acceptance, wrote the artist.

He launched a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter to resurrect Pepe in a new comic series, seeking $10,000 in pledges to draw remove any hateful connotations from the character.

AP:Associated Press

Most people who like the character arent even aware of its origins in Furies Boys Club comic from 2005, so there is very little chance Matt Furies latest efforts will do much to reclaim it.

Whether he likes it or not, Pepe now belongs to the public.

We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us attips@the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 782 4368

More:
Creator of Pepe the Frog 'white supremacist' meme wants to reclaim him as 'universal symbol of peace and love' - The Sun

America's second-favorite frog hasn't croaked yet.

Pepe the Frog creator Matt Furie announced his plans to resurrect and rebrand the character this week as a universal symbol for peace, love and acceptance

Amid the 2016 presidential campaign, Pepe had become a symbol of the so-called "alt-right" a loose affiliation of ultra-right-wingers, white nationalists and white supremacists and many Trump supporters in general.

Frustrated with the racist and hateful appropriation of his character, Furie literally killed off and buried the once chill frog dude in May.

But he then launched a $10,000 Kickstarter campaign to Save Pepe last Monday.

This project is an effort to re-rebrand Pepe the frog as a symbol of love, peace and acceptance, Furie said in a Kickstarter video. And my aim for the project is to create a brand new zine in the spirit of the original Boys Club, and tell the story of Pepes resurrection and rebirth and the story that follows.

The fundraiser has raised more than $17,000 so far, nearly doubling its initial goal.

"It is a very messy situation, Jason Furie, Matts brother who is helping with the project, told MSNBC's Joy Reid on Sunday. And him as the creator of the image is the most upset by this, but at the end of the day were trying to symbolically rebrand him into something more positive.

Matt Furie, who in June was named one of the 25 most influential people on the internet by TIME, has also acquired the help of a lawyer to explore legal challenges against alt-right figures profiting from Pepes use.

An attendee holds up a sign of Pepe the Frog during a campaign event for Donald Trump in Bedford, New Hampshire on Sept. 29, 2016. Secret Service agents later confiscated the sign. Damon Winter / The New York Times via Redux

We do reject the right of other people taking Matts character and hijacking him and making a profit from Pepe, that attorney, Kimberly Motley, said on MSNBC on Sunday. Thats where they legal challenges lie. You dont have the right to take a persons creation and then profit off that creation, which we see many people in the alt-right movement have done so.

In September, the Anti-Defamation League added the character to its Hate on Display database and describe its use by the alt-right as carrying racist, anti-Semitic or other bigoted themes.

In the fall, the ADL and Furie joined forces to launch the

The rest is here:
Pepe the Frog Creator Wants to Make Him a Symbol of Peace and Love - NBCNews.com

TheSpec.com

Can a Kickstarter save Pepe the Frog? TheSpec.com Last month, in a strip he created for Free Comic Book Day, Matt Furie had his characters mourn a memed-to-death friend, Pepe the Frog, as the cartoonist buried his chillaxin' amphibian. Now, Furie is launching a crowd-funding campaign to bring his ...

Here is the original post:
Can a Kickstarter save Pepe the Frog? - TheSpec.com