Social Media Protest Against Superman Logo Decision?

Sometimes stories that start out small can mushroom into something much bigger, especially in the social media age.

That seems like it could be happening with the backlash over DC’s decision to deny the use of the Superman logo on a statue intended to honor the memory of a 5-year old Toronto boy who was essentially starved to death after his grandparents denied him food. Though Superman was the child’s favorite super hero and the boy’s father says there is a picture of him wearing the famous costume for Halloween at the family house, he said that DC didn’t want the symbol being used in any way that connects to child abuse.

“They weren’t comfortable with that,” the father said to the Canadian Press.

Maybe not, but with the story being picked up by more and more media outlets and circulating around social media, it could be a choice that harms public perception of DC more than it helps. Rich Johnston of Bleeding Cool has already pointed out a Facebook group that is encouraging people to change the icons in their social media profiles to Superman’s ‘S’ in a sign of “solidarity and protest.”

If that kind of sentiment spreads, there’s really no way to stop it, even for a company that is within its rights to dictate how its intellectual property is used.