When people hear about violations to the Geneva Convention, their thoughts usually go to mass genocide, war crimes, deliberately targeting civilians & aid organizations in conflict zones, the list goes on. Most wouldn’t even consider the possibility of an album cover being a violation.
Well, that’s exactly what happened to the punk band, blink-182. In 1999, the band released what eventually became their highest-selling, and most critically acclaimed album, “Enema Of The State“. On the cover, model Janine Lindemulder was dressed in a revealing nurse’s uniform with the symbol of the Red Cross emblazoned on her nurse’s hat. That ended up being a problem because a provision in the Geneva Convention stated that the Red Cross’ symbol could not be used by non-medical organizations in any capacity, or without the express permission of the Red Cross. The organization has made it known that they would only grant exceptions in very limited circumstances, but there have yet to be cases of such exceptions ever being made.
So the Red Cross contacted to band and their record label, MCA, and pressured them to remove the symbol immediately. MCA and the band agreed, editing the album cover so that Lindemulder looked like she was wearing just a plain white nurse’s hat. Unfortunately, by that time, tens of thousands of vinyl records, cassettes and CD’s had already been sold, and there was little either the band or MCA could do except to ask buyers to voluntarily return the album, and have it exchanged with a copy that wouldn’t run foul of the Geneva Convention.
Of course, not everyone who purchased the album with the so-called “Red Cross” cover complied, and the albums with the Red Cross symbol on the cover have become something of a collector’s item among music enthusiasts and memorabilia collectors.