Beastie Boys Get Sabotaged By A Toy Company

SoVi3t · November 27, 2013, 12:35pm

http://badassdigest.com/2013/11/25/the-beastie-boys-did-not-sue-goldieblox/

A toy company used the band’s song for a commercial and then convinced everyone the band was wrong.
The Beastie Boys Did Not Sue GoldieBlox
Last week a video went viral with the kind of people who share Upworthy on their Facebook: it was girls making a Rube Goldberg machine out of their unwanted princess-y toys, set to a rewrite of the Beastie Boys’ Girls with the gross lyrics changed to a girl power anthem. Everybody loved it! It was inspiring! Girls don’t just want to play with dolls!

It was also a commercial for a toy company. In particular the commercial was selling GoldieBlox, a building toy aimed at girls. It wasn’t a feel-good viral message video. It was an ad.

What happened next is oh so internet. GoldieBlox launched a suit against the Beastie Boys, calling them sexist. Their press release managed to convince the world that this was a countersuit, that the evil Beastie Boys had attacked the small company with an army of lawyers. Everybody got mad. Everybody thought the company should totally be able to use the song in their video. A lot of people seemed to not get that it was an ad (which, by the way, makes it one hundred times more effective as an ad).

The problem is that the Beastie Boys didn’t sue. GoldieBlox sued first, in a defensive move after being contacted by the Beastie Boys’ lawyers about the use of the song. See, the Beastie Boys have a policy - codified in Adam Yauch’s will - against ever using their songs in commercials. Period.

Today the Beastie Boys issued a statement:

Like many of the millions of people who have seen your toy commercial “GoldieBlox, Rube Goldberg & the Beastie Boys,” we were very impressed by the creativity and the message behind your ad.

We strongly support empowering young girls, breaking down gender stereotypes and igniting a passion for technology and engineering.

As creative as it is, make no mistake, your video is an advertisement that is designed to sell a product, and long ago, we made a conscious decision not to permit our music and/or name to be used in product ads.

When we tried to simply ask how and why our song “Girls” had been used in your ad without our permission, YOU sued US.

I’m not sure what’s more irritating - the way the commercial is trying to hide behind fair use or the fact that GoldieBlox has successfully positioned themselves as the ones being attacked when they went to court first.

Here’s the thing: if that video was made by some random people and was exactly the same, the Beastie Boys would never have sued. But it’s not a PSA, it’s a commercial. It is intended to sell toys. That’s why it ends with a shot of the product, in classic advertisement fashion. What’s the difference between GoldbieBlox using a Beastie Boys song in their ad and McDonald’s using a John Lennon song without permission? Besides the fact that we all like what GoldieBlox’s mission is - nothing.

There’s also something nasty about GoldieBlox coming out swinging at the Beastie Boys as sexist. Girls is not a song that makes them proud. They have songs on their first two albums that they all but disown. But over the thirty years since License to Ill came out, the Beastie Boys grew and matured, and have become one of the wiser, kinder and more equality-minded pop groups going. Let’s put it this way: I have a hard time believing third wave feminist firebrand Kathleen Hanna would be married to Adam Horovitz if he was still the same puerile jerk who recorded Girls.

Fair use is a concept that gets trickier and more complex in our digital, remix-oriented culture, but one thing remains the same: it’s not fair use to use someone else’s art in a commercial. And as inspiring as that GoldieBlox video is, it’s a big old advertisement for a toy.

wow, that is some rotten ass shit, I hope chicks use this toy to make shit to club those executives with

Missing_Person · November 27, 2013, 12:48pm

That thread title. I can’t stand it. I know you planned it.

SoVi3t · November 27, 2013, 2:38pm

I also debated puns involving Hey Ladies, or Fight For Your Right

Missing_Person · November 27, 2013, 4:21pm

Hopefully someone sets straight this Watergate.

angelpalm · November 28, 2013, 12:25am

Ladies and PIGS, Feminism in it’s purest form.

SoVi3t · November 28, 2013, 12:26am

you mispelled stupidity…

oh wait no, feminism = stupidity

Kromo · November 28, 2013, 3:25am

Keep it going,

Keep it going, Keep it going full steam

You’re too sweet to be sour, too nice to be mean

On this tough guy style I’m not too keen.

SoVi3t · November 28, 2013, 3:34am

SRK

Where every thread eventually becomes a graveyard for terrible jokes and puns

Vynce · November 28, 2013, 3:52am

What do The Beastie Boys and Rage Against the Machine have in common?

[details=Spoiler]They suck.

(You’re mad.)[/details]

orochizoolander · November 28, 2013, 4:46am

Flag!..oh wait it only makes sense to do that in the unpopular opinion thread.

Vynce · November 28, 2013, 4:48am

B)

fishjie · November 28, 2013, 5:14am

don’t disrespect the beastie boys, they are gods

that is all

tataki · November 28, 2013, 5:25am

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qORYO0atB6g

NickRocks · November 28, 2013, 5:29am

I bet MCA is rolling in his grave RIP

araider08 · November 28, 2013, 5:48am

Dang…
Adam took that shit to the grave…

d3v · November 28, 2013, 7:58am

Well it seems that GoldieBlox is now instead pulling the song out of the ad.

Also, at least one site is calling them out for supposedly “empowering girls” while at the same time giving in to pinkification.

janoDX · November 28, 2013, 9:57am

Eternal · November 28, 2013, 11:22am

Stupid stuff lol.

I was genuinely sad when MCA died. Beastie Boys were one of the most honest and open groups ever. Seeing them mature over the years was a good thing. Also, whether or not they disowned “Girls” it’s still a darn fun song if you take it tongue in cheek. It IS sexist though, but it’s still catchy and fun. When they recorded it IIRC none of them were even of drinking age yet (21) lol. They recorded it in 1985 IIRC (album came out in 86) Adrock was born 66 so yeah, he was 19.

Also:
from triple trouble:

Okazaki_III · November 28, 2013, 8:48pm

You guys are in love with your perceived image of the beastie boys, not the beastie boys themselves. They are not this honest, freedom fighting brother in arms type of group. They are a bunch of bitches. Reading festival 1998.

deadfrog · November 28, 2013, 9:49pm

Sweet and sour like a tangeriiiine

Fresh like a box of krispy kreeeemes

Kenny Rogers’ “Gambler” is my gambling theeeeme

Mix Master Mike with the scratch routiiiiine