The Beastie Boys are suing the owner of Chilis over claims the restaurant chain used the rap trio's iconic 1994 song “Sabotage” in a social media ad without permission.
In a lawsuit filed Wednesday (July 10) in Manhattan federal court, the hip-hop legends accused Brinker International of infringing their copyrights by using the song without permission — a particularly serious claim from a trio that is known to not allow in his music to appear in advertisements.
“The use of the 'Sabotage' recording, musical composition and video were all without permission,” the group's lawyers write. “Plaintiffs do not license 'Sabotage' or any of their other intellectual property for purposes of advertising third-party products, and the late Beastie Boys member Adam Yauch included a provision in his will prohibiting such uses.”
The Beastie Boys say the Chilis ad in question featured three men in “70s-style” wigs, fake mustaches and sunglasses carrying out a “heist” of food ingredients from a Chilis. The group says it clearly “intended to provoke” the music video to “Sabotage,” a parody of the 1970s “crime drama” television programs that featured Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz, Michael “Mike D” Diamond and the late Adam 'MCA Yauch in similar attire.
Lawyers for the band say that using the song was bad enough, but that by recreating a video that contained “unauthorized video impersonations of Diamond, Horovitz and Yauch, Brinkers also violated federal trademark law by deceiving consumers with a false endorsement .
“The public was confused to believe that plaintiffs endorsed, endorsed and associated with defendant Brinker in promoting defendant Brinker's 'Chili's' restaurants and products,” the lawsuit states.
A representative for Brinker did not immediately return a request for comment.
The Beastie Boys are notoriously protective of their music when it comes to advertising, an attitude underscored by the fact that Yauch's will contained a provision prohibiting the use of his image, music and any art he created in advertising.
In 2013, the band sued a toy company called GoldieBlox after it released a parody of the group's 1987 song “Girls” to promote engineering and construction games for girls, eventually winning a settlement in which the company apologized and donated a portion of proceeds to charities. And in 2015, the band won a $1.7 million verdict against Monster Energy over a video used by the energy drink company that used several of the band's songs in a promotional video.
But they have also given their blessing to certain uses of their music. In 2016, “Sabotage” appeared in a trailer for Star Trek Beyond; the following year, the band allowed the song to be used in an advertisement for the video game Destiny 2. Although these were advertisements, both promoted works of art rather than products.
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/pro/beastie-boys-chilis-lawsuit-sabotage-ad/