David Beckham’s Terminator-style ad may give Motorola problems

The release of Motorola's latest television advert, which features the former England captain David Beckham with his insides on display (above), has been treated with reverence in some quarters, but the mobile phone company should be wary.

For when the British artist Damien Hirst used the same sort of idea for his sculpture Hymn, he found himself in a copyright row with toy company Humbrol who felt that the 20ft bronze sculpture was a direct copy of its Young Scientist Anatomy Set. The matter was eventually settled out of court with a sizeable, but undisclosed, sum.

The Becks/Motorola advert, which like Hymn sets out to show what drives man from within, is uncannily similar to the Humbrol toy. The final image in the advert, which uses cutting-edge post productionmtechniques, shows Beckham with exposed ribs, muscles and arteries. Again, just like the Humbrol toy. Motorola, you have been warned.