Montpelier Artist Defends T-Shirts in Chick-fil-A Suit

Bo Muller-Moore, a Montpelier-based design artist who created a popular “Eat More Kale” t-shirts, always hoped that his designs would grab peoples attention, but he never expected his mantra to become so controversial.

The brainchild of a local Kale grower, these three words first appeared on a single t-shirt. This design grew increasingly popular and quickly became a local trend. Now, the slogan has become focus of a patent lawsuit by Chik-fil-A, a fast food giant that claims the phrase’s similarity to their motto “Eat Mor Chikin” dilutes their marketing campaign.

Muller-Moore rejects Chick-fil-A’s allegations. He claims that in all of his conversations about his T-shirts, overlap with Chick-fil-A has never come up before.

“I have attended hundreds of festivals and farmers markets and craftshows and I’ve had hundreds of thousands of conversations about this one single design,” said Muller-Moore. “Out of all those times Chick-Fil-A was never brought up once.”

Depite Muller-Moore’s claims to the contrary, Chick-fil-A maintains that his slogan represents copyright infringement, and the company has urged Muller-Moore to cease and desist from his attempts to trademark this design.

Muller-Moore, however, is not backing down — and neither are his supporters.

Ben and Jerry’s offered Muller-Moore an hour-long televised meeting to discuss his T-shirts and the integrity of his design.

Governor Peter Shulin organized  a press conference on his behalf.

Team Kale, a group of his more ardent fans, has already raised $20,000 for his legal fees.

His advocates fight for more than a t-shirt.  Weeks after the story gained national attention, an elderly Bennington veteran wrote him a letter of which Muller-Moore is especially appreciative.

“It had saddened him so much that the US he had grown up in and fought for had come to a point where laws were now so skewed in favor of the rich and famous that the small and insignificant didn’t even get a chance to blossom,” said Muller-More.

“The trademark office now protects the marketing departments of billionaires,” said Muller-More. “It does not protect consumers and it sure as hell does not protect the start-ups and the mom and pops.”

Yet Muller-More sees a distinct social consciousness in his customers.  To him, Vermont is an oasis of innovative entrepreneurialism in a nation increasingly consumed by big business.

“My customers have come from those areas in which people [care] where their money goes,” said Muller-Moore.
Muller-Moore describes himself as an “accidental activist” ­— an individual who stumbled into social advocacy after an unexpected episode with Chick-fil-A.

“When I say “Eat More Kale,” I don’t specifically mean go out and eat loads more kale,” said Muller-Moore. “What I mean by ‘eat more kale’ is spend some money at your local farmer’s market, know where your co-op is, know where the organic sections of your big box store is, go to potlucks that feature better dishes than just jello salads and tuna casseroles.”

To Muller-Moore, “Eat More Kale” is more than a reminder to eat leafy greens. Both he and his supporters see the slogan as a rallying cry in the local-food movement’s struggle against large-scale agri-business and a motto to live by.

“If you know what kale is or if you are keeping company with people that grow and eat kale you are probably making some good decisions in life,” said Muller-Moore.