Anthony Bourdain has posted an angry missive to the channel that’s made him famous.
The food writer, chef and former host of the Travel Channel’s “No Reservations” posted a fuming message on his Tumblr about a doctored Cadillac tie-in that aired alongside the last episodes of his long-running show.
“It came as a shock and a disappointment…to see that someone had taken footage that me and my creative team had shot for my show, cut it up and edited it together with scenes of a new Cadillac driving through the forest. Scenes of me, my face, and with my voice, were edited in such a way as to suggest that I might be driving that Cadillac. That, at least, I was very likely IN that Cadillac—and that if nothing else, I sure as [bleep] was endorsing Cadillac as the vehicle of choice for my show.”
He added: “The network made a commercial, with me endorsing a product, and hadn’t even bothered to ask me.”
Besides admitting to taking money from a credit card endorsement previously, he ranted how he and the Travel Channel later “agreed to terms where my name or image was never to be used to either endorse, or imply use of a product without my specific agreement” ever again. However, after informing the network of his “extreme displeasure” after the airing of the first ad “they ran it again anyway” to the chef’s disgust.
Bourdain wrote he has “no problem with Cadillac” and has had a “long and mostly very happy relationship with Travel Channel over the last eight years.” However in recent years, he cited that “special episodes” that were merely comprised of clips of painstakingly-made previous shows that have been “butchered” and “cheaply” repurposed.
He concluded that he wished that his relationship with the channel could have ended on a high-note. “I can only ask how you’d feel if somebody was out there using your name for purposes of their own—without your knowledge. If they presented you as someone you are not, as holding opinions you don’t hold, and making money off those misrepresentations—however embarrassing to you.”