A toy company is apparently backing down after the Beastie Boys cried copyright infringement over an ad parodying their 1987 hit “Girls.”
GoldieBlox, which markets building games for girls, created a viral video with a send-up of the song that changes chauvinist lyrics like, “Girls! To do the dishes. Girls! To clean up my room. Girls! To do the laundry,” with what GoldieBlox execs called “a powerful anthem for girls.”
But the band’s Adam Horovitz and Michael Diamond responded: “We were very impressed by the creativity and the message behind your ad,” and, “We strongly support empowering young girls. [But] as creative as it is . . . long ago, we made a conscious decision not to permit our music . . . to be used in product ads.” (Late group member Adam Yauch’s will reportedly prohibits the group from licensing songs for ads.)
GoldieBlox had meanwhile already moved to preemptively sue the band, claiming fair use of the song. But after the rappers explained their position, GoldieBlox wrote an open letter of its own stating, “We don’t want to fight with you. We love you, and we are actually huge fans . . . Since actions speak louder than words, we have already removed the song from our video.” (By that time it had already reportedly been viewed 8 million times on YouTube anyway.)