An artist with a small pottery business took to TikTok to share that retailer Anthropologie had begun advertising heart-shaped mugs that looked similar to some she had made the previous year—and viewers are coming to her defense.
Anna Weaver (@annaweaver96) used her platform to share that she made identical mugs to the Anthropologie products for her small business Ivy Patch Cat Pottery the previous year for Valentine’s Day. She also claimed to be an employee of Anthropologie and said that the company’s Instagram account had liked the images she shared of her creations.
“As an artist & employee of @anthropologie I am heartbroken,” Weaver wrote in a caption on an Instagram post regarding the situation. “I have screenshots of old posts of my heart mugs in which @anthropologie and/or @anthroliving liked the photo(s). I used to get so excited seeing that notification and now I couldn’t be more disappointed. This was and still is an original design by ME that has been stripped and slightly modified for mass production. I am at a loss for words. I will not let this get slept on. If you scroll to the very end you’ll see I’m not alone.”
In her TikTok video that has garnered over 162,000 views, Weaver says that the design, while simple, was an original concept that she created herself.
“I had just never seen anyone do something like this,” she says in the video. “So I was very excited and today that all came to a crash when I saw this.”
She then shows screengrabs of Anthropologie merchandise that looks similar to her own, right down to the color of the glaze.
Many commenters tagged Anthropologie’s TikTok account in the comments, urging the company to give Weaver credit and pay her for her intellectual property.
“@Anthropologie how could you steal from your own employee???” one commenter wrote. “And you better not fire her for calling y’all out or you’ll catch these hands.”
Others suggested that the design Weaver used was actually very common and they could see how Anthropologie might have come up with the idea independently.
“I mean heart shaped mugs have been around since the 90s…it’s not theft anymore than yours were theft of earlier artists,” one commenter wrote.
Answering another commenter who shared a similar sentiment, Weaver said she hadn’t seen mugs that looked so similar to the ones she had created.
“I personally hadn’t ever seen any like mine but it’s a huge world full of creative people so I’m sure similar ones exist just too many coincidences,” she wrote.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Weaver via Instagram DM, as well as to Anthropologie directly via email.
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