Artisan CEO Jaspar Carmichael-Jack says KC Green dispute is settled, pulls Ava ads using 'This is fine'
Artisan took down New York and San Francisco ads that riffed on KC Green’s meme; Green says the settlement came together quickly, per TechCrunch, with terms undisclosed.
By Ryan Merket ·
Why it matters
The settlement is a reminder that meme-fueled marketing can backfire fast. For AI founders moving quickly, clearing rights on recognizable art is not optional when campaigns go public.
Artisan founder and CEO Jaspar Carmichael-Jack says the company has reached an agreement with cartoonist KC Green after marketing for its AI assistant Ava referenced Green’s "This is fine" imagery, according to TechCrunch.
Carmichael-Jack, who leads Artisan’s push to position Ava as an AI BDR, acknowledged earlier this week that the two sides had come to terms. In earlier coverage, Artisan told TechCrunch it had "a lot of respect for Green and his work" as the backlash grew around its out-of-home campaign, which ran on buses and subways in New York and San Francisco (TechCrunch, May 3).
Green, the creator of the now-ubiquitous meme that sprang from his 2013 "This is fine" comic within the Gunshow series, confirmed to TechCrunch that the parties "reached a settlement pretty quick." As part of that resolution, he said Artisan removed the ads that used his character in New York and San Francisco and he took down his initial post criticizing the campaign. The parties did not disclose terms.
The dispute flared after Artisan’s ads borrowed the unmistakable scene: the dog sitting calmly as flames engulf a room, with the caption swapped to "My pipeline is on fire" and a call to "Hire Ava the AI BDR," as TechCrunch described it. Earlier this month, Green posted that his art had been "stolen like AI steals" and urged followers to "vandalize" the ads if they saw them, expressing frustration to TechCrunch about spending time on the American court system instead of on his comics.
For Carmichael-Jack, the quick end to a high-visibility dust-up is a pragmatic move. Founders leaning on memetic shorthand in paid campaigns are threading a tighter needle in 2026: cultural recognition boosts recall, but missteps around rights clearance can swamp the PR upside and drain time that should go into product and customers. Green’s work is broadly documented and attributed to him, from Wikipedia’s entry on Gunshow to Know Your Meme. That makes provenance easy to check and, if needed, license.
What is not yet clear: whether the agreement included a license, an apology, compensation, or changes to Artisan’s marketing playbook. TechCrunch’s reporting focuses on the immediate steps both sides took to de-escalate: ads down, post down. For operators, the takeaway is simpler still. If your brand is borrowing cultural IP to sell an AI product, align marketing hustle with legal hygiene before the buses roll.