Pokemon Fan Finds Arceus Being Used in a Bizarre Place

A Pokemon fan has shared a bizarre image of a store using Arceus as both their logo and name. The store appears to have nothing to do with the Pokemon series otherwise, leading to amusement and confusion from players.

Pokemon are recognized all over the world due to the market saturation of the brand and the longevity of the series. However, seeing Pokemon used to unofficially advertise or promote products or businesses is much rarer. Aside from the fact that using another company’s IP without permission is typically frowned upon, Nintendo’s litigious behavior would make it an even worse idea to attempt this with anything from Pokemon.

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That apparently hasn’t stopped one business, though, as Reddit user Soment95x pointed out. The fan shared an image of a woodworking storefront, which is both an image and Arceus’ name. The “Arceus Sash Wood Works” store is apparently located in the Philippines. Soment95x joked that The Original One gave woodworking knowledge to humans to help their civilization grow, and many more have shared similar jokes in the comments. However, some have also expressed that they wouldn’t be surprised if Nintendo’s lawyers get in touch with the business in the near future.

Games Show Up Being Used By Businesses in Weird Ways

While it’s not legal or advised, this isn’t the first time that video game characters or properties have been used to advertise businesses. One popular title that seems to appear frequently in an unofficial capacity is Red Dead Redemption 2. Arthur Morgan and his posse have been spotted on multiple murals and signs for western restaurants, for example. He’s not the only protagonist from the franchise to get a nod, either, with John Marson’s image being used on packaging. It’s not clear if these uses are intentional tributes to the games, or if someone simply used Red Dead Redemption images to fill a generic western niche.

Whether this particular shop will receive a cease and desist from Nintendo remains to be seen. However, it’s an interesting thing to spot, and one wonders why the store owner would choose Arceus of all the Pokemon to associate with their shop. If the only goal was to associate Pokemon with the shop, a Grass-type Pokemon or even something that reminds people of wood, like Sudowoodo, might have been a good choice. It’s possible that Arceus is simply a favorite of the store owner, or perhaps they chose it at random. In any case, it would certainly be surprising to see something like this out of the blue.

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Satoshi Tajiri