The Beastie Boys are fighting for their right not to appear in restaurant advertising.
The group is suing the parent company of Chili’s Grill & Bar, Brinker International, alleging that the chain used the trio’s 1994 hit song and music video, “Sabotage” without permission in a social media advertising campaign.
The Beastie Boys are Michael “Mike-D” Diamond, Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz, and the late Adam “MCA” Yauch, who died in 2012. Yauch’s wife, Dechen Yauch, represents his estate as a plaintiff.
The group released “Sabotage” in early 1994 along with an elaborate music video, directed by Spike Jonez, in which they wore wigs and fake mustaches to depict characters in a fictional police drama from the 1970s. Brinker’s video for Chili’s uses similar characters and costumes, along with the song, according to the lawsuit.
“The plaintiffs do not license ‘Sabotage’ or any of their other intellectual property for third-party product advertising purposes,” the group said in its suit, filed July 10 in the Southern District of New York. Yauch also included that provision against advertising use in his will, according to the suit.
Dallas-based Brinker did not respond to emails on Monday seeking comment.
The company is the parent of the Chili’s and Maggiano’s Little Italy restaurant chains and operates the virtual brand It’s Just Wings for delivery and takeout orders.
The suit requests at least $150,000 in monetary damages, and whatever other damages a jury finds appropriate, plus the cost of attorney fees. The group also wants an order to prohibit Brinker from using its work.
According to the lawsuit, the video for Chili’s dates to November 2022 and showed “three characters wearing obvious 70s-style wigs, fake mustaches, and sunglasses who were intended to evoke the three members of Beastie Boys” depicting them “robbing” ingredients from a Chili’s” restaurant.
The restaurant chain’s video was “obviously similar to and intended to evoke in the minds of the public scenes from Plaintiff’s well-known Official “Sabotage” video,” the group said. The video has 131 million views on YouTube.
The Beastie Boys have pursued intellectual property claims previously. The group sued Monster Beverage for using music in a promotional video and won a $1.7 million copyright infringement verdict in June 2014 from a New York federal jury.
