LENNON THE BRAND: Skeptical Coverage

Sat 10 Apr 2004

John and Yoko. Her supporters are critical of lingering British dislike for the women they think stole their Beatle.


by TIM CORNWELL, ARTS CORRESPONDENT, THE SCOTSMAN

IF HE were alive today, he might well have approved. As Yoko Ono prepares to bring the most complete collection of John Lennon’s artwork to Britain next month, she is in pursuit of a long-held aim to turn the former Beatle into a global brand.


Lennon himself once said that one of his more notorious antics, the Bed-In, in which he and his Japanese wife lay in an Amsterdam hotel bed for a week, was an “advertisement” for peace. But would Lennon ever have envisaged his name and likeness being attached to a range of baby toys, jewellery and glasses?


(Scroll down for my quotes.)