The BBC has been accused of plagiarising the title of the book Slay In Your Lane for a recent women’s sport campaign.
Author of Slay in Your Lane: The Black Girl Bible, Yomi Adegoke, accused BBC Sport of “ripping off” the title of her book in a series of tweets on Tuesday.
The BBC’s #ChangeTheGame campaign, which finishes on Tuesday night, features a poster of black British sprinter Dina Asher-Smith in front of the the slay in your lane slogan.
In a statement, the BBC said it was “sufficiently far removed” from Ms Adegoke’s Slay In Your Lane brand.
But, the multi-award winning journalist slammed the broadcaster on Twitter saying they had “arrogantly assumed” the authors had not trademarked the name of the novel and "that we would for some reason be grateful at this plagiarism disguised as a nod".
She wrote: "Imagine being a white woman creating an empowering women's ad campaign for BBC Sport and choosing to rip off the trademarked name of a book specifically aimed at uplifting black women, in an almost identical font."
She added that she had been in touch with BBC Sport privately but had not received a response as of Tuesday morning.
"Make no mistake: this has happened because [the BBC has] a) arrogantly assumed we wouldn't have it trademarked and b) that we would for some reason be grateful at this plagiarism disguised as a nod,"she said.
"All I can say is black creatives, trademark your s***," she added. "I mean, it won't actually stop white women ripping you off and big organisations stealing your s***, but at least you can drag their clarts to court!!!"
Ms Adegoke’s book, co-authored with Elizabeth Uviebinene, explores how being black and female impacts on different areas of life such as education, work, wealth, dating, and health.
The BBC’s campaign’s aim is to promote the broadcasters covering of live women’s sport over summer.
A spokeswoman said in a statement: "The BBC sought legal advice before going ahead and were advised that the use of the headline ‘Slay In Your Lane’ in our Women in Sport #ChangeTheGame marketing campaign was sufficiently far removed from the goods and services covered by the trademark registration in place."
