The Beastie Boys are suing restaurant chain Chili's over its alleged use of the band's song "Sabotage" in one of its social media ads. As Billboard reports, the Beastie Boys don't allow their songs to be used in ads. And in the band's copyright infringement lawsuit, they say Chili's not only used the 1994 song, it misled consumers by copying the band's "Sabotage" video. The music video is a parody of 1970s police television shows, and featured Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz, Michael "Mike D" Diamond, and the late Adam "MCA" Yauch wearing "70s-style" disguises including wigs, fake mustaches, and sunglasses. The Chili's ad, produced in 2022, features three men wearing the same type of disguises while "robbing" ingredients from a Chili's restaurant, Variety reports.
The "unauthorized video impersonations of Diamond, Horovitz, and Yauch," the lawsuit says, could confuse viewers "into believing that plaintiffs sponsored, endorsed, and are associated with defendant Brinker [International, owner of Chili's] in promoting defendant Brinker's 'Chili's' restaurants and products." The band has filed similar lawsuits in the past, including in 2013 when it sued GoldieBlox for promoting its engineering toys using the band's song "Girls." They won that case as well as one against Monster Energy. They've also allowed their songs to be used in rare circumstances, such as to promote Star Trek Beyond and the video game Destiny 2. (More Beastie Boys stories.)
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