How Far Can You Take Facebook Like?

I‘ve spent the entire day at Gymnasiemässan in Stockholm, helping one of our biggest clients promote their senior high school at a recruitment fair, overseeing their stand and marketing material we’ve put together.

I’ve got a lot to say about the Fair but as it’s nearly midnight and I have to be up super early to be there again tomorrow I’ll keep this short.

Irony of Theft?

Whilst talking to some prospective students I noticed that one of them was wearing a badge that said: Bromma Gymnasium – Gilla.

Before the word “Gilla [Like]” was the Facebook hand – or as about as close to it as the designer could get.

In other words, here was a school distributing a big (blue) badge with its name alongside the Facebook Like logo (albeit in Swedish).

Of course it’s interesting that they’re trying to bring on and offline culture together, but reappropriating a logo / phrase like that seems dubious if not downright illegal. Or am I being old-fashioned?

What’s your take?

Update:
Alex did some checking for me today and it turned out a PR agency made the badges for the school’s marketing campaign. Given that they’ve simply taken the Like-icon and used it directly I figure it’s an infringement of the copyright. After all, there’s no actual link love back to Facebook on a badge.