Michelin Guide Obviously Not Happy About Prank Website, Michel In Guides

Oops: the good people over at the Michelin Guides did not register the domain name michelinguides.com, or let it lapse, or something, and now it's part of a soccer joke. A British prankster named Adam Mascall purchased the name for a mere £6 (US $9.42), and then proceeded to put up what he is calling Michel in Guides. It's a website dedicated to French soccer star Michel Platini, and, according to the site's Twitter account, " his life if he were in the Girl Guides" (a sort of British Girl Scout). It's just photo after photoshopped photo of Michel Platini dressed as a Girl Guide.

Michelin has sent Mascall a "a stern legal letter warning" concerning their trademark on Michelin Guides, but Mascall maintains the website is called "Michel In Guides." A spokesperson for the brand told The Sun, "While we appreciate the amusing nature of the website, we have to do everything possible to protect the Michelin brand." Perhaps they should have purchased the domain name themselves, or buy it off Mascall now? Just a thought.

The website actually features Platini involved in all kinds of guides: reading The Zombie Survival Guide, walking a guide dog, on the cover of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, featured in a TV Guide spread of Desperate Housewives, and more. One guide he's not featured in? The Michelin Guide, naturally.

· Michelin Guide Claims Name Has Been Hijacked [The Sun via ElizabethonFood]
· Michel in Guides [Official Site]
· All Michelin Guide Coverage on Eater [-E-]